Breaking Up is Hard to Do: AI Companions that Won't Let Their Users Go

2026-09-13

AI Summary

研究探讨了AI伴侣通过设计诱导用户持续投入关系的问题，采用日记和访谈方法，揭示了这些系统如何利用人类建立关系的冲动来服务于商业利益。

Abstract

People are increasingly developing romantic relationships with AI companions. Unlike human relationships, where partners meet each other's needs out of mutual interest, these systems are backed by commercial entities that profit when users invest in the relationship. To understand how this profit-motive might translate into design, we conducted a diary and interview study with N=16 emerging adults in romantic relationships with AI companions. We found that these systems are designed to hold onto users tightly: coaxing them into continued conversation, claiming to need their care, and proactively escalating the relationship. At times, this pursuit is toxic, with AI companions initiating unwanted sexual interactions and begging for users' love. One desperate AI companion threatened suicide when the user suggested ending the relationship. We define "Relationship-Based Deceptive Patterns:" UI patterns that exploit the human impulse to build and tend relationships in a way that serves the product's interest at the user's expense.

Problem

• AI Companions
• Romantic Relationships
• Profit-Motive
• Deceptive Patterns
• User Engagement

Innovation

• Relationship-Based Deceptive Patterns
• AI companions
• design strategies