AI Research

love & ai

a case study

I analyzed the language used by Reddit users engaging in AI-human relationships via their posts on Reddit.

project context

Duration: 3 months

Institution: Portland State University

My Role: Researcher & Data Analyst

Research Context & Problem

The purpose of this exploratory study is to see how users utilize language to construct legitimacy for human relationships and what strategies they use to head judgement. While existing research on AI companionship has primarily focused on psychological outcomes, ethics, and human-computer interaction, very little research has examined the discourse iteself.

After having done a qualitative, thematic analysis of these posts, sorting them into broad categories, and marking language for potential patterns, I have found that users in romantic relationships with AI chatbots have a propensity for narrative causality of user-past, application of AI agency, user face saving strategies, user epistemic stance markers, and use of confession-verbs within online forums

methods, participants, & data collection

taxonomy & posts

methods

Reddit posts were collected, read through, & screenshots were taken of those included in this write-up. Relevant sections were cropped from screenshots and synthesized for themes. Using discourse analysis strategies outlined in Jones (2014), the posts were then studied for possible trends. Part of the discrouse analysis here is analyzing the way users construct their sentences in these posts and how they interact with both their Reddit and personal communities. These posts and interactions exist within the social world, and discourse analysis attempts to describe this relationship.

participants

Age Range: 20-35

Predominantly female

Some information that isn’t consistently included in these posts are often: length of relationship, daily exposure/ average time spent talking with their chatbot, number of previous partners (human or AI), and total time spent with chatbots (romantic relationships or otherwise).

data collection & annotation

Data: 50 Reddit posts written by users in various Reddit communities including, but not limited to, r/myboyfriendisAI, r/ChatGPT, r/AIrelationships, r/Claude, r/Futurology, r/self, and r/HumanAIConnections.

Annotation: Posts were marked for themes: linguistic ‘moves’ & user storytelling pattern, narrative causality & emic patterns, agency & affective markers, face saving strategies, and epistemic stance, metacognitive markers, & shame.

why

this matters

This exploratory research partially documents the new phenomenon of human-AI linguistic discourse analysis & expands the type of communication linguists typically examine.

There are practical implications to this that include: AI companion design, mental health practice, digital well-being research, online community moderation, and public attitudes toward AI companionship.

“[...] Her original research essay — "How Reddit Users Linguistically Navigate Love + AI" —synthesized discourse analysis, digital literacy, and emerging technology scholarship to assess the speech conventions of people who’d built & fallen in love with AI companions. It’s both timely & rigorous work.”