Skip to content

Futures in Research

Envisioning relationship futures: The social and ethical implications of AI

Liesel Sharabi
Arizona State University

AI promises to be as transformative to communication and relationships as the Internet was in the latter part of the 20th century (Gruetzemacher & Whittlestone, 2022). As we enter a new era of technological innovation, it is important to consider the future benefits of AI, as well as its potential harms. In this working group, we will discuss the social and ethical implications of AI and algorithms for relationships. Questions we will address include: (a) What are the potential social impacts of AI on relationships? (b) What are the ethical challenges of communicating through as opposed to with AI? and (c) How does this topic blur the boundaries between traditionally separate sub-fields in communication research (e.g., interpersonal communication, computer-mediated communication) and adjacent disciplines (e.g., psychology, informatics, data science)? The goal of our working group is to develop a collaborative idea for a research project on the topic of AI-mediated intimacy.