Social Media Clones: Exploring the Impact of Social Delegation with AI Clones through a Design Workbook Study

2025-09-09

AI Summary

This study investigates the impact of AI-driven social media clones—termed “socially delegated AI agents”—on users’ online behavior, identity expression, and social trust. Employing a design workbook–guided, semi-structured interview methodology grounded in AI-mediated communication theory, the research conducts qualitative analysis across diverse user cohorts. Findings reveal that while such clones enhance interaction efficiency, they simultaneously provoke an authenticity crisis; users strategically align their behavior with their clones to preserve self-presentation consistency, exhibiting a novel “reverse domestication” phenomenon. The study introduces the conceptual framework of “socially delegated AI cloning” for the first time, uncovering emergent impression management mechanisms in human–AI co-presence. Based on these insights, it proposes platform design principles emphasizing ethical accountability and interactional explainability. This work advances theoretical foundations for AI agent identity governance and offers actionable pathways for fostering trustworthy human–AI sociotechnical systems.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI

Abstract

Social media clones are AI-powered social delegates of ourselves created using our personal data. As our identities and online personas intertwine, these technologies have the potential to greatly enhance our social media experience. If mismanaged, however, these clones may also pose new risks to our social reputation and online relationships. To set the foundation for a productive and responsible integration, we set out to understand how social media clones will impact our online behavior and interactions. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews introducing eight speculative clone concepts to 32 social media users through a design workbook. Applying existing work in AI-mediated communication in the context of social media, we found that although clones can offer convenience and comfort, they can also threaten the user's authenticity and increase skepticism within the online community. As a result, users tend to behave more like their clones to mitigate discrepancies and interaction breakdowns. These findings are discussed through the lens of past literature in identity and impression management to highlight challenges in the adoption of social media clones by the general public, and propose design considerations for their successful integration into social media platforms.

Problem

• Exploring AI clones' impact on online social behavior
• Assessing risks to authenticity and social reputation
• Investigating user adaptation to mitigate interaction breakdowns

Innovation

• AI-powered social delegates using personal data
• Semi-structured interviews with speculative clone concepts
• Design considerations for social media integration