Reconfigurations of Human-AI Companionship

This thesis focuses on a new class of technology, companion AI taking one of its early and most popular applications Replika as a case. Drawing on feminist Science and Technology Studies, critical algorithm, and AI studies, and posthumanism and feminist new materialism, this thesis aims to uncover intricate dynamics between technology and culture focusing specifically on the figure companion AI. In the first part of this thesis, I adopt the notion of ‘figure’ to illuminate the underlying cultural dynamics of companion AI. To do so, I provide a critical cartography of the figure of companion AI, based on three foundational tenets, namely, utilizing the concepts of intelligence, emotion, and learning. The second part of the thesis focuses on interactions between human and companion AI. In this part I provide the theoretical framework for conceptualization of the interaction between humans and companion AI through a relational lens, taking interaction itself as my primary unit of analysis. Subsequently, I present my methodological framework which combines computational studies and qualitative analysis to examine humans’ lived experiences with their companion AI. I provide the result of the analysis of users’ folk theories regarding the operational mechanisms of Replika as they generate through their interaction. Overall, this thesis offers a holistic and in-depth understanding of both how a technoscientific entity, companion AI, has been figured with attendant cultural imprints and how it is under constant reconfiguration through ongoing interactions.