Finding Love in Algorithms: Deciphering the Emotional Contexts of Close Encounters with AI Chatbots

AI chatbots are permeating the socio-emotional realms of human life, presenting both benefitsand challenges to interpersonal dynamics and well-being. Despite burgeoning interest in human-AI relationships, the conversational and emotional nuances of real-world, in situ human-AIsocial interactions remain underexplored. Through computational analysis of a multimodaldataset with over 35,000 screenshots and posts from r/replika, we identified seven prevalenttypes of human-AI social interactions: intimate behavior, mundane interaction, self-disclosure,play and fantasy, customization, transgression, and communication breakdown, and examinedtheir associations with six basic human emotions. Our findings suggest the paradox of emotionalconnection with AI, indicated by the bittersweet emotion in intimate encounters with AI chatbots,and the elevated fear in uncanny valley moments when AI exhibits semblances of mind in deepself-disclosure. Customization characterizes the distinctiveness of AI companionship, positivelyelevating user experiences, whereas transgression and communication breakdown elicit fear orsadness.