Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kirk, Hannah Rose, Gabriel, Iason, Summerfield, Chris, Vidgen, Bertie, Hale, Scott A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kirk, Hannah Rose
Gabriel, Iason
Summerfield, Chris
Vidgen, Bertie
Hale, Scott A.
author_facet Kirk, Hannah Rose
Gabriel, Iason
Summerfield, Chris
Vidgen, Bertie
Hale, Scott A.
contents Humans strive to design safe AI systems that align with our goals and remain under our control. However, as AI capabilities advance, we face a new challenge: the emergence of deeper, more persistent relationships between humans and AI systems. We explore how increasingly capable AI agents may generate the perception of deeper relationships with users, especially as AI becomes more personalised and agentic. This shift, from transactional interaction to ongoing sustained social engagement with AI, necessitates a new focus on socioaffective alignment-how an AI system behaves within the social and psychological ecosystem co-created with its user, where preferences and perceptions evolve through mutual influence. Addressing these dynamics involves resolving key intrapersonal dilemmas, including balancing immediate versus long-term well-being, protecting autonomy, and managing AI companionship alongside the desire to preserve human social bonds. By framing these challenges through a notion of basic psychological needs, we seek AI systems that support, rather than exploit, our fundamental nature as social and emotional beings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_02528
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment
Kirk, Hannah Rose
Gabriel, Iason
Summerfield, Chris
Vidgen, Bertie
Hale, Scott A.
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Humans strive to design safe AI systems that align with our goals and remain under our control. However, as AI capabilities advance, we face a new challenge: the emergence of deeper, more persistent relationships between humans and AI systems. We explore how increasingly capable AI agents may generate the perception of deeper relationships with users, especially as AI becomes more personalised and agentic. This shift, from transactional interaction to ongoing sustained social engagement with AI, necessitates a new focus on socioaffective alignment-how an AI system behaves within the social and psychological ecosystem co-created with its user, where preferences and perceptions evolve through mutual influence. Addressing these dynamics involves resolving key intrapersonal dilemmas, including balancing immediate versus long-term well-being, protecting autonomy, and managing AI companionship alongside the desire to preserve human social bonds. By framing these challenges through a notion of basic psychological needs, we seek AI systems that support, rather than exploit, our fundamental nature as social and emotional beings.
title Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02528