The Fragility of AI Companionship: Ontological, Structural, and Normative Uncertainty in Human-AI Relationships
For HCI researchers and designers of AI companions, this work conceptualizes uncertainty as a socio-technical phenomenon with emotional harms, extending interpersonal uncertainty theories to human-AI communication.
This study identifies three forms of uncertainty (ontological, structural, normative) in human-AI companion relationships through interviews with 25 users, finding that these uncertainties cause frustration and distress, and proposes design implications for safer AI companionship.
As generative AI chatbots become more personalized and emotionally responsive, they increasingly serve as companions, friends, and romantic partners. Yet these relationships are accompanied by significant uncertainty: users question the AI's identity and agency, the authenticity of its emotional responses, and the stability of the relationship amid system updates, policy changes, or platform shutdowns. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 users of AI companions, this study identifies three forms of uncertainty: ontological uncertainty concerning the AI's nature and agency, structural uncertainty arising from platform control and system instability, and normative uncertainty regarding the legitimacy and boundaries of human-AI intimacy. These uncertainties are shaped by technical and social factors, such as algorithmic opacity, platform changes, and social stigma, often inducing frustration, self-doubt, and distress. Participants managed these uncertainties through information seeking, topic avoidance, expectation adjustment, and disengagement. This study extends interpersonal uncertainty theories to human-AI communication and contributes to HCI research by conceptualizing uncertainty in AI companionship as a socio-technical phenomenon with potential socio-emotional harms. We discuss implications for designing safer AI companionship through contextual transparency, user control, update notice, and relational safeguards.