The Role of Machine Agents in Social Support

The increasing prevalence of machine agents like Woebot and ChatGPT raises questions about their role in social support. This chapter examines the growing phenomenon of support in the context of human-machine communication (SHMC) and the human use of use of technologies like chatbots and AI to help them cope with stressors. The paper reviews major theories, frameworks, and research surrounding this area and how people have developed unique “human-media” scripts tailored to their interactions with technology. The studies presented in this chapter were selected for their relevance and highlighting the unique and evolving dynamics of how people perceive and interact with machine agents.