Intimacy with Socially Interactive AI: Humans’ Preferences Between Physical Robots and Virtual Agents in Different Types of Relationships

Drawing on the computers as social actors paradigm and embodied social presence theory, this study investigates which socio-demographic, dispositional, and attitudinal factors are associated with humans’ willingness to engage in nine types of intimate relationships with socially interactive AI and their preference between physical robots and virtual agents in these relationships. In a survey of 447 respondents, loneliness and positive interactions with robots were associated with willingness to form AI relationships across most types of relationships. Consistent with mind perception theory, willingness was higher in cognitive relationships, such as therapist, friend, and mentor, than in caregiving, affective and bodily relationships, such as pet, romantic partner, and sexual partner. Physical robots were favored in roles involving touch or physical tasks, and virtual agents in cognitive relationships. These findings suggest human-AI interactions must be theorized granularly at the level of specific relationships, and embodiment preferences also vary with humans’ relational expectations.