Decoding Artificial Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications

Conducting conversations with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as ChatGPT is becoming an everyday experience for large masses of people. However, we still know very little about the emerging communicative dynamics facilitated by these technologies. This special issue tackles a dimension of AI that is becoming increasingly relevant and ubiquitous: artificial sociality, defined as technologies and practices that construct the appearance of social behavior in machines. The notion of artificial sociality aims to emphasize that machines construct only an illusion or artifice of sociality, stimulating the humans who interact with them to project social frames and meanings. In this introduction to the themed issue, we discuss the dynamics and implications of artificial sociality and show how these technologies are increasingly incorporated and normalized within digital platforms. The issue includes contributions that offer empirical findings and theoretical insights by examining a broad array of AI technologies, ranging from ChatGPT to Replika.