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

We are pleased to announce that the special issue Decoding Artificial 
Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications
is now published in New Media & Society.

Conducting conversations with artificial intelligence technologies such 
as ChatGPT is becoming an everyday experience for large masses of 
people. This 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 behaviour in machines and 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.

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

“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

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

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

‘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

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

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

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

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
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