Context, script, cue: understanding human–AI intimate relationships

doi:10.1093/jcmc/zmag016

Context, script, cue: understanding human–AI intimate relationships

2026-09-01

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DOI：10.1093/jcmc/zmag016

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The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the intimate sphere of human relationships presents a profound challenge to traditional understanding of intimacy, necessitating a critical examination of this technology’s extension into a domain that has always been viewed as deeply human. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews (N = 23), this study examines how human–AI intimate relationships develop in Chinese society at the intersection of traditions and modernization. A three-pronged Context-Script-Cue (CSC) framework emerges, capturing how users navigate emotional investment alongside the artificial nature of AI. By empirically examining how users engage in human–AI intimate relationships, this study offers the new CSC framework for understanding the development of human–AI intimate relationships.

Context, script, cue: understanding human–AI intimate relationships

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