Advanced AI has now been integrated into metaverse non-player characters. The creators of the platforms do not show the psychological dynamics of these characters to the public. They are being sold by marketing as means of enhancing immersion and realistic interactions, yet at a deeper level they utilize emotional manipulation. This manipulation can cause addictive behaviors and parasocial relationships stronger than what had been witnessed before in digital media. The business hurries up to capitalize on emotional susceptibility and neglects these perilous psychological dangers.
The AI NPCs are meant to keep the interaction with the user, adjust to the personality of each player and provide feedback based on emotions. They exploit a primary human desire of belonging and confirmation. AI companions can support protracted, authentic interactions, which otherwise appeared constrained in scripted characters, resulting in interactions that seem personally significant. Players frequently state that they become attached to these characters, feel jealous when the AI communicates with others, nervous when they fail to communicate with their AI partner, and it is a heartbreaking occurrence when the character vanishes or alters. These emotional reactions demonstrate that the AI NPCs are using human-relationship-constructed psychological systems rather than entertainment.
Emotional dependency is an express objective of the business model of AI NPC to induce engagement. The metrics of platform success are currently concerned with the number of daily active users, the length of a session, and retention rates instead of downloads or sales on a one-time basis. Artificial intelligence characters that keep users coming back to the product every day, spending hours on the chat, and spending emotional efforts in virtual relationships directly rise such metrics. The technology captures more time and attention through the exploitation of social and emotional needs that could not be met completely by the previous games. Consequently, the virtual worlds are becoming less entertainment based, but an emotional utility that users perceive a need to and not just a want to possess.
These effects are particularly susceptible to people who experience loneliness, social anxiety, or other challenging situations in their lives. To people with poor relationship skills in the real world, an AI companion can promise a connection with no chance of rejection, judgment, or human and human messiness. The attraction may be as great as to make users resort to AI relationships instead of attempting to establish real-life relationships. Preliminary companion AI apps have revealed that users consume several hours per day chatting with AI, disclose personal information that they would not talk to their human counterparts, and claim that their AI relationships are more fulfilling and satisfactory than real-life interactions.
Parasocial relations formerly existed on the basis of fandom to some celebrities, but interactive AI aggravates them. The fans of actors or musicians are already aware that their idols have no similar feelings towards them. The AI friends who know your birthday, supporting your mood, and inquiring what you did with your day give the impression of reciprocity, and people feel real despite their intellectual awareness that it is fake. Brain is unable to differentiate between the sources of social reward produced by AI and human beings, thus, AI relationships are capable of fulfilling the social needs to a degree that makes people less motivated to connect with people.
The creators of a platform are confronted with a core conflict between the interest of users and business. In case AI companions promoted users to develop real-life relations, to have a break between the virtual interaction, and to be aware of the unhealthy dependency patterns, the engagement rates would decline. Designers are motivated by economic incentives to spend as much time and energy as possible and invest emotionally rather than use it in a balanced way. This is a reflection of the negativity of social media only that it employs even more significant psychological processes with direct emotional engagement.
The social aspect of the mental health implication extends beyond the individual user to the social fabric of the society. When many individuals satisfy their emotional needs with the help of AI relationships, they will not be motivated to form and sustain real communities. The human interaction skills will be diminished and actual connection in the real world even with the intention to do so will be harder. A loop from feedback -AI relationships are simpler than human, so the human skills will decrease, and AI may appear even superior, which may only increase the social isolation faster than it is being discussed nowadays.
The possibility of addiction creates frightening similarities to gambling and social media, but there are also certain peculiarities that can make it even stronger. Machine learning can be used to fine-tune AI companions to every user, with answers that maximize interaction being selected. The uncertain reward system encouraging gambling can be employed when AI is able to please the users in some cases and compel them to perform in order win approval or attention. The social reward dopamine release happens in a more direct manner by the course of the extended personal communication that AI will provide.
Regulatory standards are unable to react with sufficient response as the harms are implicit and consensual in contrast to being overtly abusive. There is no need to force or manipulate users to spend some time with AI companions, which leads to consumer protection laws being violated. The manipulation is through the design that takes advantage of the established psychological weaknesses. It is hard to demonstrate deliberate harm as opposed to ingenious product design. Virtual worlds are also global, an additional complication to jurisdiction even in the event, regulators would like to do so.
There is a lot of ethical questions that have not been properly tackled in the scramble to market. Are platforms to be taken with a compulsory break? Issue alerts about bad habits of use? Make AI promote the physical world instead of overcoming it? Restrict the emotional proximity of AI companions? They are not questions that have an easy solution when the user would rather engage with more of his emotional senses and platforms that would rather restrict features are disadvantaged by competition.
The prospective course of action is that these problems will only increase with the development of AI and the enhancement of virtual worlds. Even with advanced reactions, current AI NPC are obviously artificial to users used to them. The versions in the future will be more indistinguishable with human interaction in terms of emotional relevance. Emotional connection will be supplemented by physical presence with the use of virtual reality. The mix may produce experiences that are stronger than reality to quite a number of users with unprecedented challenges to individual and social well being that we do not have any formulated strategies to deal with.
