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Interaction with social agents employing natural language have been discussed especially since Weizenbaum (1966) observed the social effects of his chatbot named Eliza, which imitated a cli-ent-centered conversation. With Nass and Reeves’ media equation theory and computers as social actors paradigm, a well-tested framework has been introduced to the study of human-computer interaction. In the 1990s, there was a renewed focus on natural language analysis, which has be-come a crucial area of research in machine learning. Recent advancements in data processing and storage capacities have led to the development of AI-generated utterances that closely resemble human utterances. As a result, AI-based systems can now mimic social relationships to a signifi-cant extent. In light of these technological developments, the article explores whether quasi-social relationships should be considered within the field of social psychology and examines the poten-tial advantages and challenges of this approach.
Linnemann et al. (Mon,) studied this question.