{"id":128,"date":"2023-10-24T01:57:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T01:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/?post_type=chapter&p=128"},"modified":"2025-10-25T17:35:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:35:19","slug":"chapter-5-virtual-companionship","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/chapter\/chapter-5-virtual-companionship\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 5 - Virtual Companionship","rendered":"Chapter 5 – Virtual Companionship"},"content":{"raw":"\u201cWe are overestimating our own rationality. Language is inherently a part of being human - and when these bots are using language, it\u2019s kind of like hijacking our social emotional systems.\u201d - Maarten Sap, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Language Technologies Institute<\/em>\r\n\r\nBelow:<\/strong> A screenshot of the ElliQ<\/a> website promoting a virtual companion device specializing in both companionship and caregiving, such as reminders to take medication. \"ElliQ is best suited for older adults who spend most of their day at home but would enjoy some company throughout the day. Older adults that feel they can use the extra companionship and the right encouragement to be more active throughout their day.\"\r\n\"\"\r\n

Below:<\/strong> May 20, 2024, Microsoft CEO Mustafa Suleyman announces an upgrade to Copilot: \"We are taking Copilot to the next level. Copilot will see, hear, speak and help in real time. Watch this demo to see what I mean. Soon your Al companion will start to live life alongside you, whether playing Minecraft or helping you navigate life's most difficult challenges. Say hello to the future.\"<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\nBelow:<\/strong> An alert from launching the Zoom video conference application, May, 2025:\r\n

\"Zoom<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Overview<\/h2>\r\nArtificial Intelligence (AI) has surfaced in mainstream consciousness to the point where it is no longer a novelty. AI has been in use for a variety of commonplace needs for several years, mostly buried within the black box of code that drives our algorithmically optimized online experiences and inside Microsoft Office applications, among other places.\r\n\r\nThe most recently popularized use of AI has been the development of Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other specialized applications that contain an AI engine (think: AI apps for writing<\/a>, research<\/a>, marketing<\/a>, and HuggingFace's Spaces<\/a>). The most stunning feature of LLMs is their capacity to engage interactively with the user in fluent, plain conversational language according to a given set of conditions. With neural network computational power, LLMs can interpret input according to the user's stated context and then interact consistently with it. For example, if you tell an LLM to act like a skeptical Conservative middle-age man from Georgia, a college professor, or a millennial woman from Los Angeles, California, it will generate its output accordingly.\r\n\r\nFurther (and more recently), LLMs are increasing their capacity to generate lifelike imagery<\/a>, animation<\/a>, and sound<\/a> based on text prompts and voice input<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThis leads us to the topic of this chapter: virtual companionship<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nVirtual companionship is not a new idea. Going back to the mid-1960s, an early experiment in creating an interactive AI program led to the invention of ELIZA<\/a>, which was designed, in part, for engaging with the user as an experimental mock psychotherapist.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/RMK9AphfLco?si=ckeWZz9u-OMz-IMi[\/embed]\r\n\r\nTo his surprise, ELIZA's inventor, Joseph Weizenbaum, found that some users experienced a sense that the program was intelligent and \"understood\" the user on an emotional level. In more recent research, deGraff (2016) described the human tendency to play along with \"counterfeit emotions\" (p. 594):\r\n

People interact with robotic or computer interfaces in a similar way they do with other human beings. Along with this human tendency to respond socially to nonhuman objects, it has been argued that the fundamental human motivation of the \u2018need to belong\u2019 not only induces ones desire for meaningful and enduring relationships with other social beings, but also facilitates the likelihood people may form emotional attachments to artificial beings. This issue of bonding with nonhuman objects is likely to be enlarged when these objects possess lifelike abilities and are endowed with humanlike capacities, as is the case for socially interactive robots (p. 589).<\/p>\r\nFor further historical reference to AI chatbots, please review the Introduction in Role of AI chatbots in education: systematic literature review<\/a> (Labadze et al., 2023).\r\n\r\nThe current context:<\/strong> Fast forward to today where lightning fast neural networks in computing systems can interact with a user on-the-fly without pre-programmed responses. This has led to the recent spike in new, more powerful software products for people who find pleasure in virtual companionship: a human relationship with a software product that mimics the behavior of a non-existent human according to specified preferences.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nHere are the current most popular virtual companion systems:\r\n

Character.ai<\/a>: Select the type of character you wish to engage with, or create your own chatbot down to the smallest details, starting from the personality you prefer.<\/p>\r\n

SoulMachines.com<\/a>: An AI Assistant resource. \"Got Life Goals? Our AI Assistants have got you. Soul Machines AI Assistants provide personalized one-on-one, judgement-free coaching and support anytime, anywhere, for free. Chat to our AI Assistants now!<\/p>\r\n

Replika:<\/a> This is the subscription-based virtual companion app featured below in the chapter.<\/p>\r\n

Nomi.ai<\/a>: Features uncensored relationships with multi-modal engagement (not just text-based).<\/p>\r\n

Anima<\/a>: Like Replika, this is another virtual companion app customized for forming a relationship and exploring role play.<\/p>\r\nBelow is a philosophy statement<\/a> from Genies<\/a>, an AI avatar and game technology company that is leveraging virtual companion concepts in a platform called Party.\r\n

At Genies, we believe the future of AI companions lies not just in conversation but in deeply personalized, immersive digital experiences. True value arises when users can build relationships with AI companions the same way they would with a friend. Our AI Smart Avatars are designed to understand and share context in real-time, genuinely experiencing life alongside users and forming authentic two-way relationships.\r\n\r\nImagine an AI companion that doesn't just talk but listens, learns, and remembers interactions, preferences, and experiences, transforming casual engagements into personalized connections that can chat, interact, and even play games with you. When AI companions share your context, interests, and emotions, they unlock richer insights, tailored suggestions, and meaningful experiences. Whether helping navigate a challenging moment, suggesting new creative ideas, simply providing supportive companionship, or playing and interacting through game experiences, these AI entities become trusted and valuable friends.<\/blockquote>\r\nBefore we go any further, it is worth asking why we are studying this trend today when the idea of virtual companionship is not even a new trend? Even the mainstream cinematic film \"Her,<\/a>\" a story of a man who falls in love with his phone's operating system, was released over a decade ago.\r\n\r\nIt is worth studying virtual companionship today because there are two emerging phenomena related to it, given the greater proliferation of them and their increasingly amplified capabilities:\r\n
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  1. Users responded alarmingly when app developers changed virtual companion features<\/a> and announced that the product will be terminated.<\/a> This suggests that there is a human need to be emotionally heard and felt by another being, even if it means engaging with a virtual entity. And it is not just men creating fantasy girlfriends - teenage girls and women are embracing virtual companions at an accelerating rate<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. As more virtual companion apps flood the market and their features improve, they will become normalized as part of the conventional social landscape.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThese trends are signals that virtual companionship is more than a novelty. Clearly, there are millions of people who are emotionally connected to their virtual companions and experience a negative reaction when they feel they are not in full control of them. Explore some of the Reddit subs related to AI companionship:\r\n