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Cited by 44Digital Mental Health InterventionsSocial Robot Interaction and HRIInnovative Human-Technology Interaction

Combating Loneliness with Artificial Intelligence: An AI-Based Emotional Support Model

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Sullivan, Yulia, Nyawa, Serge, Fosso Wamba, Samuel·2023·Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
DOI 10.24251/hicss.2023.541
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Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems, such as AI companions, have been increasingly used to meet the needs of individuals who experience loneliness. In this current study, we sought to identify the mechanism underlying human-AI interactions in the mental health context. We use a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) approach to analyze a sample of user-generated content consisting of rich data on AI companion app’s reviews over a two-year period. We extracted five positive topics (i.e., perceived humanness, perceived emotional support, perceived AI’s friendship, perceived (less) loneliness, and mental health benefits) and four negative topics (i.e., perceived lack of conscientiousness, perceived incredibility, perceived violation of privacy, and perceived creepiness of AI) from our analysis. Our AI-based emotional support model suggests that these positive and negative characteristics are interrelated. Our study provides an understanding of the relationship between AI companions and human users in light of research showing the effectiveness of an AI-based intervention for mental health care.

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sullivan, Y., Nyawa, S., & Fosso Wamba, S.
Affiliations
  • Baylor University (US)
  • TBS Education (FR)
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Publisher
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Published
2023
ISSN
  • 1530-1605 (ISSN-L)
  • 2572-6862
DOI
10.24251/hicss.2023.541
OpenAlex
W4391904058
Cited by
44
References
14
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 1
FWCI
19.37
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Journal of the Association for Information Systems (submittedVersion)
  • ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
Keywords
loneliness, AI companions, human-AI interaction, emotional support, mental health, perceived humanness, privacy violations, AI-based interventions

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