Using fictional stories about the future, doctoral student Negin Hashmati is exploring how young people’s mental health could be affected by relationships with AI. Her goal is to influence future policy recommendations to prevent negative consequences of the technology.
What just a few years ago seemed like science fiction is now a real product, offered by companies and used by millions around the world. The product is AI friends, or virtual companions: AI-based chatbots designed to simulate friendship or romance. While chatbots like ChatGPT are often used for practical tasks or brainstorming, AI friends are built for intimacy. In recent years, AI friends have sparked growing debate, but little is still known about how they affect their users.
Now, Negin Hashmati, a doctoral student in Interaction design at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, is investigating how these digital relationships might impact young people’s mental health.
“I want to understand whether people feel better or worse after being in a long-term relationship with an AI chatbot,” she says.
Negin Hashmati draws parallels to social media, where research has shown negative effects on young people’s mental health.
“It's still too early to say whether AI chatbots will become as big a phenomenon as social media, but what if we could get ahead of the development of AI chatbots and identify the negative consequences before they happen? That is what I want to contribute to with my study,” she says.
Short stories as a research tool
The first step in the project is an interview study with Swedish youths aged 16–25, which Negin Hashmati is currently conducting together with her supervisor, Thommy Eriksson. The interviews will provide the researchers with an initial indication of how Swedish youth use AI friends, an area that remains largely unexplored. At the same time, Negin Hashmati is reviewing existing research on AI companions. Drawing on those findings, she will write short stories about the role that these technologies might play in a near future.
“This is a method known as Design fiction, which involves creating fictional narratives based on research that describe new technology and its place in society. It’s an established method in the field of human-computer interaction, but we haven’t seen it used for studies on AI chatbots,” says Negin Hashmati.
Aiming to influence legislation
To create a multifaceted picture of how the development of AI friends might unfold, Negin Hashmati plans to put together an anthology collecting design fiction stories about AI friends. The anthology will include both her own contributions and stories written by other researchers in the field. The collection is to be used as discussion material in workshops with various societal stakeholders, such as schools, preschools, businesses, municipalities, and more.
“Fiction is a useful and effective way to convey thoughts and ideas, and by allowing different stakeholders to engage with these stories, we can hopefully gain a better understanding of the attitudes towards this technology. With new technology, we are usually able to study the effects only after they occur, but design fiction allows us to make assumptions grounded in research.”
Negin Hashmati hopes that the results of her study can serve as a knowledge base for legislators in developing guidelines for AI chatbots.
“I think chatbots can be useful for training social phobia, job interviews, presentations, or for people who are very lonely. But we also need to better understand the risks. In the best of worlds, we can harness the advantages while being prepared for the drawbacks.”
Read more about the research project on virtual companions
In this research project, we want to explore the possible advantages and disadvantages of future virtual companions, delivering recommendations and suggestions for legislation that are well anchored in a stakeholder community both nationally and internationally. Our focus is not on developing new technology, but instead investigating applied information technology, that is, how the technology fits in and interacts with society and individuals in their daily lives.
- Doctoral Student, Interaction Design and Software Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering
- Senior Lecturer, Interaction Design and Software Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering
