The Influence of Unequal Chatbot Treatment on Users in Group Chat

Abstract

The area of unfair treatment by artificial intelligences in human-AI interaction has seen frequent attention over the recent years. However, research in this area tends to target one-on-one interaction. Experiments which focus on perceived unfairness in group settings that involve an AI are mostly nonexistent. This work intends to provide insight into settings such as these through conducting a comparative study that exposes groups of people to AIs which treat parts of the participants differently than others in a cooking setting. Our results show significant differences between participants who have been treated unfairly by the AI, but also in groups not directly affected by the unfair treatment; the latter also thought worse of the AI if they felt another group partner was treated unfairly. We discuss these results and theorize about possible reasons.