Related papers: Designing with Tensions: Older Adults' Emotional S…
Older adults are increasingly turning to conversational AI for emotional expression. While prior research has examined general attitudes toward AI companionship, little is known about the specific moments when and why older adults choose AI…
AI companion chatbots are increasingly used for emotional support, with prior work in the domain predominantly documenting their mixed psychosocial impacts, including both increased emotional expression and heightened loneliness. However,…
AI assistants are increasingly integrated into older adults' daily lives, offering new opportunities for social support and accessibility while raising important questions about privacy, autonomy, and trust. As these systems become embedded…
Designing Conversational AI systems to support older adults requires more than usability and reliability, it also necessitates robustness in handling conversational breakdowns. In this study, we investigate how older adults navigate and…
Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled everyday technologies could help address age-related challenges like physical impairments and cognitive decline. While recent research studied older adults' experiences with specific AI-enabled products…
Development in digital technologies has continuously reshaped how individuals seek and receive social and emotional support. While online platforms and communities have long served this need, the increased integration of general-purpose…
Designing Conversational AI systems to support older adults requires these systems to explain their behavior in ways that align with older adults' preferences and context. While prior work has emphasized the importance of AI explainability…
Online, people often recount their experiences turning to conversational AI agents (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) for mental health support -- going so far as to replace their therapists. These anecdotes suggest that AI agents have great…
The rapid advancement of AI companionship systems has positioned them as scalable interventions for addressing social isolation. Current design approaches emphasize maximizing user engagement and satisfaction, treating effective alignment…
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), together with persistent gaps in access to reliable emotional support, have positioned AI as an increasingly prominent source of emotional assistance. However, most AI-based emotional support…
Music-based reminiscence has the potential to positively impact the psychological well-being of older adults. However, the aging process and physiological changes, such as memory decline and limited verbal communication, may impede the…
Following the recent release of various Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Conversation Agents (CAs), adolescents are increasingly using CAs for interactive knowledge discovery on sensitive topics, including mental and sexual health topics.…
Artificially intelligent systems optimized for speech conversation are appearing at a fast pace. Such models are interesting from a healthcare perspective, as these voice-controlled assistants may support the elderly and enable remote…
People are increasingly turning to generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) for emotional support and companionship. While trust is likely to play a central role in enabling these informal and unsupervised interactions, we still lack…
With respect to digital games, older adults are a demographic that is often underserved due to an industry-wide focus on younger audiences' preferences and skill sets. Meanwhile, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to expand into…
This paper explores the growing presence of emotionally responsive artificial intelligence through a critical and interdisciplinary lens. Bringing together the voices of early-career researchers from multiple fields, it explores how AI…
Emotions are an integral part of human cognition and they guide not only our understanding of the world but also our actions within it. As such, whether we soothe or flame an emotion is not inconsequential. Recent work in conversational AI…
General-purpose conversational AI chatbots and AI companions increasingly provide young adolescents with emotionally supportive conversations, raising questions about how conversational style shapes anthropomorphism and emotional reliance.…
As stories of human-AI interactions continue to be highlighted in the news and research platforms, the challenges are becoming more pronounced, including potential risks of overreliance, cognitive offloading, social and emotional…
As the population of older adults increases, there is a growing need for support for them to age in place. This is exacerbated by the growing number of individuals struggling with cognitive decline and shrinking number of youth who provide…