Technology People perceive chatbots as independent beings
People judge chatbots with artificial intelligence in the same way as other people. As a new study by the University of Basel shows, the same psychological mechanisms come into play when assessing the trustworthiness of AI and humans.
09.01.2025, 08:48
SDA
In particular, competence and integrity are important criteria for people to perceive an AI chatbot as trustworthy, according to the study in the "Journal of Experimental Psychology: General".
Integrity and competence are also considered trust-promoting characteristics in humans, as the University of Basel explained in a press release on the study on Wednesday. The trait of benevolence also plays a role in people. When assessing the trustworthiness of chatbots, however, benevolence is less important when the other two dimensions are considered.
Perceived as independent beings
The study also shows that respondents attribute these characteristics directly to artificial intelligence (AI), not to the company behind it. In other words, they perceive AI as an independent entity, as the researchers explained. "We project more into AI systems than actually exists," said Fanny Lalot, head of the study, according to the press release.
This makes trustworthy AI systems all the more important; a chatbot should neither lie to us nor approve of everything we say without ifs and buts, according to the researcher.
In the study, test subjects were confronted with examples of conversations between users and the fictitious chatbot Conversea. They then imagined that they themselves were interacting with Conversea.
