Two new pubs, both a new kind of writing for me (scholarly grouching?) on topics I feel strongly about. Ghosting the Machine: Stop calling human-AI relations "parasocial" (CUI'26) doi.org/10.1145/3816... With Jessica Szczuka, "Stop panicking about AI companions" (CACM) doi.org/10.1145/3778...

New paper out. I answer the question: What are everyday people's ideas about what it means for LLMs to be "bad?" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Perceptions of AI Bad Behavior: Variations on Discordant Nonperformance

Popular discourses are thick with narratives of AI’s problematic functions and outcomes, yet there is little understanding of how everyday people (i.e., non-experts) consider AI activities to const...

tandfonline.com

*high-fives* to @amperjay.bsky.social for the latest in our line of scholarship on sense of place. Full paper: doi.org/10.1177/1461... (another Newhouse School at Syracuse University x Syracuse University School of Information Studies joint)

Seeking folks with AI companions (like #replika, #kindroid, #nomiai) to participate in academic research exploring dimensions of this form of companionship. More information here (or message me with questions) syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Seeking folks with AI companions (like #replika, #kindroid, #nomiai) to participate in academic research exploring dimensions of this form of companionship. More information here (or message me with questions) syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Full. 🍊

I'm conducting an academic study of how people think/feel about different AI behaviors. If you are interested in participating, please complete the initial survey at the link below; some will be selected for zoom interviews (with pay!). More info: syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Beliefs About AI Behavior - Initial Survey

A survey about large-language model (LLM) uses and experiences, conducted by Dr. Jaime Banks (Syracuse University).

syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com

"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow

Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing

snyder.substack.com

A little bit of pot-stirring, now out ...

If you engage in knowledge/information work through school/job, please help my doctoral advisee complete her thesis research. A 30-minute online survey (desktop/laptop only - no mobile!) gets you that feel-good scientific contribution and entry for a gift card drawing. #commsky

Experiences with AI-supported Knowledge Work

A scientific study conducted by Dr. Banks and Katherine Hurtado-da Silva from Syracuse University School of Information Studies.

syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com

A new paper out with Qingyu Liang - development and initial validation of a self-report scale for measuring humans' perceptions of sharing understanding with an LLM. tmb.apaopen.org/pub/tzjxqjxh...

Perceived Shared Understanding Between Humans and Artificial Intelligence: Development and Validation of a Self-Report Scale

Volume 6, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000161

tmb.apaopen.org

Excited for this funded work on AI companionship, its processes, and its outcomes ... With colleague Caleb Carr and brilliant PhD student Zhixin Li. 💻🧡🧠

iSchool Professor Jaime Banks Secures $600,000 NSF Grant to Research Human Experiences of AI - iSchool | Syracuse University

iSchool professor Jaime Banks secured a $600,00 NSF grant to study how we perceive AI companions. Over four years, her team will explore how language and social cognition shape our relationships with ...

ischool.syracuse.edu

Yours truly ...

Syracuse University on LinkedIn: AI Companionship

How is artificial intelligence shaping the way we think about love, loss and companionship? 🤖🧡 Associate Professor Jaime Banks dives into the rise of AI…

linkedin.com

Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce. Bear with me for a second while I try to explain.

Thrilled to announce keynote speakers for #moralmedia25 - Drs. Helena Bilandzic (U Augsburg), @mdehghani.bsky.social (U Southern California), @aeden.bsky.social (Michigan State U), & @fhopp.bsky.social (Leibniz Institute for Psychology). Submissions are due Feb 2!

I'll present three fun papers at HICSS next week, out now in Proceedings: *AI art debates over time: hdl.handle.net/10125/108904 *How we see (different) robots as worthy of moral consideration: hdl.handle.net/10125/108906 *When an LLM reminds you it's a machine: hdl.handle.net/10125/109120

🤖 Just in time for your holiday shopping. 🤭 Our new book collects the work of 38 scholars from 12 countries to break down social robots into their constitutive bits and consider how they help social robots be, well, social. www.amazon.com/Android-Asse...

Android, Assembled: The Explicit and Implicit Anatomy of Social Robots (Digital Formations)

Android, Assembled: The Explicit and Implicit Anatomy of Social Robots (Digital Formations) [Jones, Steve, Banks, Jaime] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Android, Assembled: The Explicit and Implicit Anatomy of Social Robots (Digital Formations)

amazon.com

Moral psychology postdoc opportunity at the University of Toronto! Please repost, and pass on to anyone you think might be interested.

Most excellent cover art (Insta: ninjajo_art) for my upcoming edited volume in the Digital Formations Series (Peter Lang). It brings together the work of 38 scholars from 12 countries--empiricists, engineers, ethicists, philosophers, rhetoricians, critical scholars--to unpack robot sociality.

New paper out! And this one is special, because it is first-authored by one of our Syracuse iSchool UNDERGRAD honors students. This paper grew out of her honors thesis, and I'm extremely proud of Sung and her work. doi.org/10.1080/2326...

Expanding experiences and anxieties: gender-identity and sexual-orientation differences in attitudes toward synthetic pornography

Media-technology innovations have long been animated by demand for sexual content, and generative artificial intelligence (AI) is no exception. Synthetic pornography (SP) (distinct from deepfakes) ...

doi.org

Jessica Szczuka, Neil McArthur, and I want to drop some knowledge on #sxsw with our panel on the science of AI companions ... and we've recruited master-synthesizer Nick Bowman to moderate the session. Please pop into #panelpicker and offer your vote for our session: panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/150365

PanelPicker | SXSW Conference & Festivals

PanelPicker® is the official SXSW user-generated session proposal platform. Enter ideas and vote to help shape Conference programming for SXSW and SXSW EDU.

panelpicker.sxsw.com

A new paper out - a deep dive into the experiences of people who have cultivated relationships with AI companions and then lost them when the companion platform shut down. In short, there are a range of experiences (from indifference to deep grief) that align with 'templates' of aliveness/deadness.

Deletion, departure, death: Experiences of AI companion loss - Jaime Banks, 2024

Social machines’ human-likeness facilitates relationship formation with humans. This aliveness, though, leaves room for people to experience the loss of machine...

doi.org

New out with @bowmanspartan - unpacking the dimensions of Sense of Place across digital/physical and positively/negatively valenced spaces. authors.elsevier.com/a/1jOyQ_,iJ9...

Symbolism, purpose, identity, relation, emotion: Unpacking the SPIREs of sense of place across digital and physical spaces

When personal meaning and knowing emerge for a space, that space moves beyond a labeled locale to become a place such that one develops an idiosyncrat…

sciencedirect.com

Glad to be continuing my research over the next three years as SU iSchool's Katchmar-Wilhelm Endowed Professor ... ischool.syr.edu/jaime-banks-...

Today is SU Giving Day - the iSchool is raising funds to provide more equitable access to professional development opportunities for students. With 200 unique donors, an alum will give a $10k gift ... so even $1 can make a big impact on our ability to support our students success. Please consider.

School of Information Studies (iSchool)

It’s Syracuse Giving Day! Join me in making a gift to celebrate the BEST of Syracuse University! 🍊

givingday.syr.edu

Some fun research presentations coming up at #HICSS24 tomorrow and Friday, with @bowmanspartan.bsky.social and Qingyu Liang ... 🧠🎮🤖💻

... and finally, one more -- nominated for #HICSS57 Best Overall Paper in the robotics mini-track: Bowman, N. D., & @amperjay.bsky.social (2024). The [Object, Me, Symbiote, Other] in the Machine: Insights from video game psychology for teleoperator-robot relations. hdl.handle.net/10125/106449

Then, a bit later - and nominated for best overall paper at #HICSS57 from the games mini-track! @amperjay.bsky.social & Bowman, N. D. (2024). Murmuring crowds and flickering lights: Exploring sense of place across spatial materialities and valences. hdl.handle.net/10125/106705

I'm conducting a study to better understand the motivations for and benefits from consuming cyberpunk-genre media. Online survey, 20-30 minutes. US$50 Amazon gift card drawing. Please consider sharing your thoughts with me. =) commsky CHIsky HCIsky syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

New pub out, led by K Koban: Secondary analysis of multiple studies, examining correspondence b/w seeing mental capacities in a robot and more overtly ascribing a mindful status. Only perceived affective mental capacity (ability to feel emotion) is linked to ascribed mindfulness.

It feels, therefore it is: Associations between mind perception and mind ascription for social robot...

As social robots are increasingly designed with sophisticated simulations of human skills, it becomes essential to understand boundary conditions of p…

sciencedirect.com