Artificial Resonance: AI companions as agents of social acceleration

Abstract AI companions are becoming increasingly popular, with millions of users worldwide, especially young adults. Some see the potential to fight the so-called loneliness epidemic; others see the destructive effects of addiction and harmful guidance leading users in extreme cases even to suicide. Recent research has examined AI companions through the lens of AI ethics, addressing questions of emotional dependency, controllability and emotional harm. While these contributions are valuable in assessing these newly appearing phenomena of AI companions, they do not address the ideological logic underlying these platforms: the rationalization and economization of emotional relationships. Therefore, I propose to apply Hartmut Rosa's resonance concept to investigate the ideological dimensions of AI companion interaction. I argue that AI companions contradict Rosa's definition of resonance as fundamentally uncontrollable and unavailable on demand. Although Rosa’s definition of resonance aims to counter social acceleration, commodified resonance by AI companions contains the opposite potentiality to enforce social acceleration. Drawing on Rosa’s four parameters of resonance, I aim to provide an analytical framework, Artificial Resonance , that can then be used in addition to existing ethical frameworks in the assessment of AI companion interaction.