AI As Communicator
Technology As A Social Actor
How Humans Perceive Communicative Technologies
The Role Of Communicative Technologies In The Re-Imagination Of The Self
Ethical Implications Of This Shift
For over 70 years, the study of artificial intelligence (AI) and communication have followed separate paths. The emphasis in AI research has been on reproducing aspects of human intelligence within machines, such as the capacity for communication.
In contrast, throughout history, communication has been predominantly perceived as a human-centred activity influenced by technology. Research within the discipline has primarily centred on how individuals interact and exchange messages, with a focus on the resulting implications.
Presently, the gap between AI and communication research is being bridged by the development of AI technologies specifically designed to function as communicators. The advancements in AI have resulted in the integration of increasingly powerful AI technologies into our everyday lives. People now regularly engage in conversations with digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, and this interaction with smart devices is anticipated to surge as the Internet of Things continues to evolve.
In response, scholars in communication studies are urging the discipline to pay more attention to understanding increasingly human-like and communicative AI technologies, their impact on human interaction, and their consequences.
However, one of the significant challenges that researchers studying communicative AI confront is the fact that AI and its interactions with people do not neatly align with the paradigms of communication theory that have formed over more than a century around human-to-human communication.
At the centre of AI's challenge to communication research lies a blurring of the boundary between humans and machines. The human-centric definition of communication is rooted in a broader cultural understanding, portraying communication as an exclusively human attribute. Early communication models deliberately positioned humans as the communicators, restricting technology to the role of a medium. The prevalent model of communication, featured in textbooks and underlying research across the discipline, has traditionally depicted people exchanging information through a technology that mediates human interaction.
With the rise of digital devices, communication scholars redirected their focus to examining the technological disparities between old and new media. Certain scholars pioneered the exploration of technology as a social actor, offering crucial theoretical insights into human-computer interactions. However, the research on computer-mediated communication, evolving alongside new media, stayed rooted in the paradigm established by earlier media forms.
Human–Machine Communication (HMC), is an emerging field within communication studies that attempts to create an alternative way of conceptualizing technology within the context of communication. It focuses on the creation of meaning among humans and machines aiming to refine and evolve theories related to how people engage with technologies like agents and robots. One of the focal points of HMC is the evolving inquiries surrounding human communication with AI technologies engineered to function as communicators.
AI functions as a communicator in various forms, ranging from interpersonal interlocutors to content producers. Examples of what is generally termed as communicative AI encompass conversational agents, social robots, and automated writing software. Voice-based assistants like Amazon’s Alexa vocally address human queries and requests. Embodied robots engage in verbal and nonverbal interactions with individuals. Bots and automated programs, partake in text-based social media interactions, assuming the guise of human conversational partners, thereby influencing the tone and content of these exchanges.
What unifies these technologies is their assumed role as communicators, a role which was historically confined to humans within the communication discipline's conceptual framework. In undertaking this role, AI not only facilitates communication, it automates communication and also the social processes dependent upon it.
Technology As A Social Actor
AI technologies designed for communication represent a shift from the historical role of media, which traditionally served as the medium for human communication. While talking technologies like car navigation systems existed before AI, their interactions were limited to utilizing a narrow set of predefined commands. These technologies did not adapt to users, context, or the message exchanged. In contrast, interactions with AI-enabled devices and programs are dynamic, shaped by the ongoing exchange of messages within specific moments and contexts, or by the data input into the program. Moreover, certain AI technologies exhibit responsiveness to individual users, learning from their human communication partners and adjusting interactions accordingly.
Some scholars assert that emerging technologies, such as robots, not only surpass the interactive capacities of previous devices but potentially transcend the boundaries of human communication by integrating various communication modalities. AI technologies, in their design and functionality, are positioned as progressively intricate and lifelike communication partners. Moreover, findings in human–computer interaction (HCI) indicate that when messages are directly exchanged between technologies and people, the devices and programs are interpreted as distinct social actors.
Communication facilitates individual relationships and the formation of society. Interactions among people are not solitary occurrences; instead, they occur within social contexts, wherein each communicator interprets the attributes and traits of the other concerning the self. While these principles hold true for human communication, what about interactions involving AI?
Designs of technology, including AI, have historically drawn inspiration from human social roles and relationships. An instance of this influence can be seen in Weizenbaum’s (1966) ELIZA, which serves as the precursor to contemporary conversational agents. ELIZA was specifically crafted to simulate the role of a therapist, prompting users to take on the role of a patient during interactions.
Furthermore, the incorporation of human-like attributes in AI, such as gender, contributes to solidifying the technology's social role. Historically, AI agents have operated as assistants while being intentionally designed with explicit gender markers that align with cultural stereotypes associated with human assistants.
Designing technology with an explicit social role aims to offer people a framework for how they can and should communicate with it. Within the perspective of human machine communication, exploring the social positioning of technology involves understanding how individuals perceive a specific technology in relation to themselves, the factors influencing such perceptions, and how these conceptualizations influence their interactions.
Human Perception of Communicative Technologies
A significant outcome of technology’s transition from medium to communicator is the shift in the human perception of communicative technologies.
How individuals perceive and assess their communication partners guides their interactions with other humans. In the case of Human–Machine Communication (HMC), the focus shifts from asking "Who is a person interacting with?" to exploring "What are they communicating with?" A crucial facet of this study involves examining how individuals conceptualize AI as a communicator. This includes understanding people's interpretations of both the human-like and machine-like characteristics of the technology and the connections they draw between a communicative technology and other interactive entities, such as animals.
Studies have shown that certain aspects of technology design, such as voice modulation, provoke human-like responses toward devices, similar to responses evoked by anthropomorphic cues like gender, for instance. The design of AI agents and individuals' interactions with them have been significantly influenced by gender as a guiding heuristic. Moreover, the extent to which a technology's gender aligns with societal expectations in a given context shapes people's perceptions of their computerized partner and influences their interactions with it.
Ongoing research in this field focuses on examining how individuals interpret the human and machine-like attributes of communicative technologies. This investigation encompasses various considerations, including verbal and nonverbal attributes such as human/machine, male/female, young/old, embodied/disembodied, mobile/stationary and so on. These attributes contribute to the conceptualization of the assistant as a communicative subject and subsequently impact how individuals behave towards it.
social responses to human-like cues in technology should not be mistaken as an indication that individuals perceive a particular technology as human or interact with it in the same manner as they would with a human across all aspects of communication. People demonstrate social behaviours towards technology by drawing upon their knowledge of communication, which originally evolved around human interaction. There are instances where the characteristics of a machine may have a more significant impact on shaping individuals' perceptions of technology as a source of messages.
Communicative AI and the Reimagined self
The second significant outcome of the emergence of AI as a social actor that we will be discussing today is the role of communicative technologies in reimagining the self.
AI technologies prompt inquiries into how individuals perceive themselves in light of their interactions with these devices. While technology has played a longstanding role in shaping one's self, what captivates scholars about people's engagements with AI and related technologies is the shift from interacting with another human being to engaging with a human-like entity.
The examination of the networked self in the AI era encompasses not only how individuals comprehend themselves in their interactions with a specific technology but also how people utilize these technologies to reimagine their identity.
Exploring AI's impact on self-perception necessitates researchers to be mindful of how the human-centric interpretation of communication has influenced the study of the self. It also requires considering the ways in which this understanding might need to be reevaluated within the context of human-AI interactions.
Even prior to the emergence of AI, technology and its design held a significant role in shaping the societal frameworks. Devices were acknowledged as communicative tools embodying cultural values capable of influencing human relationships and social structures. As technology evolves, particularly with the rise of AI and related advancements, inquiries arise regarding the level of agency individuals possess in relation to these technological developments.
Critical, cultural, and feminist scholars scrutinize emerging AI technologies, seeing them as reflections of the worldviews and biases of their creators, manifested in their usage. From this perspective, when technology takes on the role of a communicator, essentially automating the communication process, it potentially diminishes and devalues the human presence it replaces, posing a threat to social processes like democracy reliant on human interaction. For instance, scholars argue that the inclusion of gender and other human-like attributes in technology, such as a virtual female assistant, can contribute to the social and economic degradation of specific groups, such as human assistants.
The economic and political challenges accompanying the automation of communication are perceived as reminiscent of past issues within industrial automation. With communicative AI increasingly entering domestic spaces like homes, the focal point of this struggle for control shifts to personal and domestic spheres. Consequently, critical and cultural studies in communication grapple with questions revolving around the societal repercussions of portraying the human within the machines, the automation of labour in communication, and the integration of these technologies into spaces that hold deep personal significance.
Philosophical inquiries into the nature of humans and things have been ongoing for centuries. Scholars have explored technology as an area for investigation, probing the essence of life, humanity, and the functionality of our bodies and minds. As personal computers became integrated into everyday life, the study of AI poses a challenge to the established conceptualizations of human nature.
Communication scholars now confront similar inquiries as those posed by historical technologists and echoed by recent researchers: What defines humanity? What characterizes technology (especially communicative AI)? Where do the boundaries lie? How do individuals demarcate these boundaries, and to what extent are they evolving?
As mentioned before, studies have revealed that how individuals perceive the essence of a communicative technology influences their attitudes and behaviours toward it. Scholars have also demonstrated the diverse conceptualizations people hold regarding the essence of humans and technology, underscoring the need for further examination into how individuals differentiate between the nature of humans and technology and the resulting consequences of such interpretations.
Ethical Implications of Communicative AI
Now let’s move on to address the ethical implications of communicative AI.
Ethical norms within communication, similar to communication theories, have historically been grounded in the assumption of people as communicators. However, there is a less defined ethical framework for socio-technical systems, like algorithms, and communicative AI. Communication scholars are now confronted with grappling with inquiries about the expected behaviour of machines towards humans and vice versa.
These inquiries are especially relevant in the context of communicative AI. For instance, Google's launch of an AI agent that mimics human voice for administrative tasks faced significant public criticism, compelling Google to assure the public that the virtual agent would identify itself. Similar queries arise regarding the disclosure of the nature of a communicator, sparking ethical discussions regarding the transparency of authorship and bylines for robot reporters, for example. Moreover, legal debates also occur, concerning accountability in automated media.
The core concern in the evolving relationship between technology and humans in communication lies in the essence of communication itself. To what extent does communication change when the process is no longer solely within the domain of humans? While talkative technologies and social interfaces have existed for many years, communication scholars have largely skirted around the broader ontological question due to the extremely limited nature of interactions with these devices. Nevertheless, as demonstrated, AI technologies are active communicators participating in continuous and adaptive communication in people’s everyday spaces and through their design and utilization, they actively challenge the theories and norms of communication established around human-centric assumptions.
Conclusion
The emergence of Human–Machine Communication (HMC) as a field underscores this transformation, urging a new understanding of technology within the realm of communication. The crucial impact of this shift can be seen in three key areas: how humans perceive communicative technologies, the re-imagination of the self through interactions with AI, and the ethical implications accompanying this transition.
The transition of AI from mediators to communicators brings forth a paradigm shift in human perceptions of technology. Individuals interact with AI-enabled devices like conversational agents and robots, prompting scholars to explore how people interpret human-like attributes in these technologies. Factors such as gender markers influence perceptions, impacting how individuals engage with AI communicators. This shift challenges traditional views of communication, demanding a re-evaluation of how humans relate to technology.
Additionally, the emergence of AI as communicators prompts reflections on the way humans perceive their self. Interacting with human-like entities prompts inquiries into self-perception and the societal frameworks shaped by technological advancements. Critical scrutiny reveals concerns about AI diminishing human presence, potentially devaluing social processes and impacting democracy. Philosophical debates around humanity's essence and technology's role further complicate these discussions, inviting exploration into the evolving nature of human boundaries and identity.
Ethical considerations also accompany this AI evolution, raising questions about expected behaviour from machines, transparency in AI interactions, and accountability in automated media. As AI becomes active communicators embedded in daily life, ethical dilemmas arise regarding their behaviour and disclosure of their nature. This evolution challenges communication norms rooted in human-centric assumptions, urging scholars to navigate the changing landscape of communication where technology becomes an active participant in the exchange of messages.