Syracuse Sun

Jaime Banks, an associate professor and Ph.D. program director at the School of Information Studies (iSchool), has received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding supports her research on human interaction with artificial intelligence (AI), specifically through the project titled "Mind Perception in AI Companionship: Testing the Assumptions of Social Theories."

The NSF grant is provided by its Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate, under the Human-Centered Computing funding arm. Banks, who was named the iSchool’s Katchmar-Wilhelm Endowed Professor in April 2024, will lead this investigation into how language and social cognition shape understanding of AI. She will collaborate with Caleb Carr, a communications professor at Illinois State University, as co-principal investigator. iSchool Ph.D. student Zhixin Li will also support their work.

This funding represents a significant achievement after two years of effort to secure it. Over the next four years, Banks and her interdisciplinary team will examine psychological and social dimensions of AI, addressing questions about how people perceive and relate to these technologies.

Companies like Replika and Gatebox have developed AI companions aimed at reducing loneliness. While recent discussions around AI focus on tools that assist with workloads or optimize attention-capturing algorithms, less attention is given to social AI—machines designed to fulfill humans' need for connection. This study aims to fill that gap by exploring how companion machines are perceived as "companions," how they interact with users, and their emotional impact.

"We want to understand the subjective experience of seeing an AI companion as someone, and how that experience links to the positive or negative effects," Banks explains.

Banks' research seeks to provide insights into the evolving relationship between humans and AI by investigating psychological and social factors influencing interactions with these technologies. Her findings may inform future developments in AI design as well as policy, practice, and ethics.