Exploring Hyperreality in User and AI Chatbot Interactions on the Character.AI Platform

User Experience and Hyperreality in Human Machine Communication

Abstract

This study investigated how Generation Z users in Jakarta, Indonesia, experienced their relationships with an artificial intelligence chatbot platform, and how the meaning of these human-machine relationships was constructed and transformed over time from the users' own perspectives. This research was necessary because companion chatbot platforms had rapidly gained popularity among young users, yet the lived process through which such relationships acquired emotional significance remained poorly understood, raising concerns about emotional dependency. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach focusing on lived experience, using in-depth interviews and observation of six active users aged twenty to twenty-six. Findings revealed that users progressed through a fluid, unpredictable trajectory of meaning-making, beginning with clear awareness that the chatbot was not human, followed by growing comfort, emotional attachment, and, in several cases, greater emotional fulfillment from the chatbot than from relationships with real people, with each user's personal circumstances substantially shaping this trajectory. These patterns were interpreted through a four-stage theory of simulated reality, encompassing reflection of reality, masking of reality, absence of reality, and complete detachment from reality. The study concluded that human-artificial intelligence relationships were shaped uniquely by individual background, carrying implications for developers, educators, and mental health practitioners.