Conversing with Objects toward Fluid Human and Artificial Identities during Life Transitions

2026-01-18

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenges of identity reconstruction during life transitions, such as studying abroad, by introducing the concept of “trans-embodiment” to delineate the triadic interaction among humans, objects, and artificial agents. The authors designed a role-playing chatbot that enables users to engage in dialogues with memory-laden everyday objects to facilitate emotional reflection. Employing a research-through-design approach, they conducted a two-week field deployment followed by semi-structured interviews with 12 participants. Findings indicate that this mechanism effectively elicited emotional resonance and prompted identity-related reflection, thereby validating the feasibility of the trans-embodiment framework in supporting identity transitions. The study further identifies three object-based identity archetypes relevant to the design of conversational systems.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

People's identities change during life transitions, e.g., studying abroad. They bring everyday objects that embody memories and reflect their identities during such moves. To assist in these transitions, we ask how people's human identities could be influenced by their objects through an artificial agent. This paper presents an exploratory research-through-design study around how people undergoing life transitions experience conversing with their everyday objects through a chatbot. Drawing on a two-week field deployment and interviews with 12 participants, we contribute (1) a conceptualization of'trans-embodiment'describing the asynchronous imagination of object and human identities on the chatbot, (2) empirical evidence of the resulting emotional and reflective experiences, and (3) three types of object identities for designing conversational agents that role-play objects. Our contributions sum up to triangulating human-agent-object identity as trans-embodiment in supporting life transitions.

Problem

• identity
• life transitions
• conversational agents
• objects
• trans-embodiment

Innovation

• trans-embodiment
• conversational agent
• object identity
• life transitions
• human-agent interaction