[Commlist] New Media & Society special issue on “Decoding Artificial Sociality”

New Media & Society special issue on “Decoding Artificial Sociality”

We are pleased to announce that the special issue Decoding Artificial 
Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications, co-edited by Iliana 
Depounti and Simone Natale, is now published in New Media & Society.

The special issue tackles a dimension of AI that is becoming 
increasingly relevant and ubiquitous: artificial sociality, defined as 
technologies and practices that construct the appearance of social 
behavior in machines. The notion of artificial sociality emphasizes that 
machines construct only an illusion of sociality, stimulating humans who 
interact with them to project social frames and meanings.

The issue includes outstandings contributions that offer empirical 
findings and theoretical insights by examining a broad array of AI 
technologies, ranging from ChatGPT to Replika. As a whole, the articles 
collected here help define, understand, and critically analyze emerging 
modalities of social interactions between users and artificial intelligence.

Special issue highlights:

"Decoding Artificial Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications"
In the introduction to the special issue, Iliana Depounti and Simone 
Natale discuss the dynamics and implications of artificial sociality and 
show how these technologies are increasingly incorporated and normalized 
within digital platforms.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251359217 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251359217>

“Capacities for social interactions are just being absorbed by the 
model: User engagement and assetization of data in the artificial 
sociality enterprise"
  Jieun Lee analyzes ScatterLab’s use of user-generated language data 
to develop the Korean chatbot Luda, showing how data, even if harmful or 
abusive, may be repurposed for business interests.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338275 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338275>

"Grooming an ideal chatbot by training the algorithm: Exploring the 
exploitation of Replika users’ immaterial labor"
Shuyi Pan, Leopoldina Fortunati and Autumn Edwards conducted a digital 
ethnography on a pioneer online community related to companion chatbot 
Replika. Their analysis revealed that Replika users invest a significant 
amount of intellectual and affective resources into the chatbot through 
algorithm training, driven by fascinating imaginaries of an ideal AI 
partner.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338271 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338271>

"The quasi-domestication of social chatbots: The case of Replika"
Gina Neff and Peter Nagy discuss how users adapt to changing AI 
companions, showing that re-domestication strategies are essential to 
re-integrate these technologies into everyday life.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251359218 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251359218>

"‘I think I misspoke earlier. My bad!’: Exploring how generative 
artificial intelligence tools exploit society’s feeling rules"
Lisa M. Given, Sarah Polkinghorne, and Alexa Ridgway analyze how genAI 
bots mobilize social rules and gendered feeling norms to imitate 
emotional responsiveness.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251338276 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251338276>

"The sociocultural roots of artificial conversations: The taste, class 
and habitus of generative AI chatbots"
Ilir Rama and Massimo Airoldi explore how large language models inscribe 
class bias and reproduce sociocultural patterns of taste and habitus.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338273 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338273>

"Meta-authenticity and fake but real virtual influencers: A framework 
for artificial sociality analysis and ethics"
Do Own (Donna) Kim examines the relationship between artificial 
sociality and authenticity through the case of CGI virtual influencers, 
proposing “meta-authenticity” as a framework to assess realness and 
inauthenticity.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338272 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448251338272>

"The conversational action test: Detecting the artificial sociality of 
artificial intelligence"
Saul Albert, William Housley, Rein Sikveland, and Elizabeth Stokoe 
introduce a “Conversational Action Test” to assess how artificial agents 
achieve conversational competence.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251338277 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251338277>

In mobilizing the concept of artificial sociality, the issue stresses 
the importance of identifying and exploring the implications, 
potentials, and risks of AI technologies that create the appearance of 
sociality in a society increasingly shaped by encounters between humans 
and machines.

Access the full special issue in New Media & Society here: 
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/10 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/10>


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