Personal Sphere: Companionship and ComAI

In our research project, we are investigating the everyday use of companion apps such as Replika. More and more people use these companion apps to cope with everyday challenges such as feelings of loneliness, cognitive or emotional overload, forgetfulness, or existential crises caused by the loss of a loved one, be it a person or a pet. In line with the trend towards digital companionship through ComAI, societies are faced with a general proliferation of companionship through counseling services. Although this so-called "artificial companionship" is as real as face-to-face companionship, it is different in terms of how the communication takes place. Therefore, we want to compare AI companionship with face-to-face companionship focusing on patterns, underlying knowledge, and agency. Since the designers of companion apps have relied on the expertise of professional grief counselors, we want to explore this professional knowledge using discourse analysis. This method allows for the systematic analysis of documents in which grief counselors share their views on best practices in grief support. Grief counseling and day-to-day life management are two variants of companionship that differ in the level of intervention in everyday life routines. Companionship is thought to require a specific form of communication that can be learned. We expect narrative episodes to be a crucial element of this form of communication. Companionship is thus not only about individual people and their actions, but can be performed by different people in different places in very similar ways. Companionship is thus both societal communication and a communicative form (genre), which we explore through genre analysis. We are particularly interested in the extent to which the actors in a companion relationship share biographical insights. Over the course of the relationship, they may increasingly acquire knowledge about each other that they refer to when they meet again. If the companion reveals more about his or her life because he or she is prompted to do so, the balance between them may shift toward the companion. Thus, the companion may be the more powerful part of the companionship relationship. But what happens when AI-driven media technology comes into play? Does ComAI or AI-driven technology have power: can it exercise its power over those who use the app? Does it even have agency? These are questions that we aim to explore in depth with digital ethnography.