UK National Survey on Attitudes to AI Companions: Aggregate Data (2024, 2025)

2024: To ascertain how the British public feel about AI companions, we conducted a UK-wide demographically representative national survey (implemented by professional company Walnut Unlimited - a human understanding agency, part of the Unlimited Group), across 10-12 December 2024, 2073 respondents aged 18 years or over, online omnibus). This was a part of a Responsible AI award, to create soft governance of autonomous systems that interact with human emotions and/or emulate empathy. The survey asks 22 closed-ended, multiple-choice questions on AI companions. The first set of questions (Q.1-2) glean participants’ familiarity with, and usage of, companion apps. The second set of questions (Q.3-4) explore the acceptability of design features of AI companions. The third set of questions (Q.5-7) explore the broad benefits and concerns from using AI companions. The fourth set of questions (Q.8-13) explore views on children and companion apps. The fifth set of questions (Q.14-15) explore views on older adults and companion apps. The sixth set of questions (Q.16-18) explore views on mental health issues and companion apps. The seventh set of questions (Q.19-21) explore views on desired governance of companion apps to consider the practicalities of what societies should do about AI companions, if anything. The final question (Q.22) is an evaluative question on whether participants feel AI companions are generally a positive or negative addition to society.

Funded by the Responsible AI UK Impact Accelerator, project AEGIS sees Bangor University's Emotional AI Lab partnering with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Monash University (Indonesia) and engaging the Information Commissioner's Office (UK). The goal of AEGIS is to host a series of workshops, assemble a diverse expert working group and develop a ‘technical standard’ to address use of emulated empathy in general-purpose artificial intelligence systems for human-AI partnerships. Provisionally titled Recommended Practice for Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in Partner-based General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems, this IEEE standard will define ethical considerations, detail good practices, and augment and complement international human rights and regional law. Use cases encompass general-purpose artificial intelligence products marketed as ‘empathic partners’, ‘personal AI’, ‘co-pilots’, ‘assistants’, and related phrasing for ‘human-AI partnering’. Current and nascent domains of use include work, therapy, education, life coaching, legal problems, fitness, entertainment, and more. These systems raise ethical questions that are global in nature, yet benefitting from diverse ethical approaches, especially where systems feed into the design of human-centered technologies. Some ethical questions are familiar (e.g. transparency, accountability, bias and fairness), but others are specific and unique, including psychological interactions and dependencies, child appropriateness, fiduciary issues, animism, and manipulation through partnerships with general-purpose artificial intelligence systems. The project augments the Emotional AI Lab's UK-Japan social science work by conducting a UK national demographically representative survey, and considering results in light of studies on AI ethics. It also sees global value in drawing a range of ethical frames of reference by which to account for human-AI partnerships, not least Japan and ethically aligned regions, given their long-standing interests in human-technology partnerships.

2025:  Artificial Intelligence (AI) can have dramatic effects on industrial sectors and societies (e.g., Generative AI, facial recognition, autonomous vehicles). AI UK will pioneer a reflective, inclusive approach to responsible AI development that does not ignore AI's potential harms but acknowledges, understands and mitigates them for diverse societies. AI UK adopts a strong human-centred approach to ensure societies deploy and use AI in a responsible way by providing the AI community with a toolkit of technological innovations, case studies, guidelines, policies and frameworks for all key sectors of the economy. To achieve this, AI UK will deliver and drive a collaborative ecosystem of researchers, industry, policymakers and stakeholders that will be responsive to the needs of society, led by a team of experienced, well-connected leaders from all four nations of the UK, committed to an inclusive approach to the management of the programme.

AI UK grows an interdisciplinary ecosystem that adopts Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI), Trusted Research, and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as fundamental principles. AI UK will champion a research culture where everyone is respected, valued and able to contribute and benefit and coordinate the UK's AI research networks and programmes, working with key Research Council (and other funding) programmes, The Alan Turing Institute, The Ada Lovelace Institute, AI Standards hub, Centres for Doctoral Training, UKRI AI Research Hubs, Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) as well as the wider landscape of university-based Responsible/Ethical AI research institutes. AI UK will connect UK research to internationally leading research centres and institutions around the world. Ultimately, through this ecosystem, AI UK will deliver world-leading best practices for the design, evaluation, regulation and operation of AI-systems that benefit the nation and society. AI UK will invest in the following strands:

Ecosystem Creation and Management: to define the portfolio of thematic areas, translational activities, and strategic partnerships with academia, business and government and associated impact metrics. This will broaden and consolidate the network nationally and internationally and identify course corrections to national policy (e.g., industrial strategy).

Research & Innovation Programmes: to deliver consortia-led research that address fundamental challenges with multi-disciplinary and industrial perspectives, integrative research projects that link connected and established research teams across the community, and early stage and industry-led research and innovation projects to expand the UK's ecosystem and develop the next generation of leaders.
Skills Programme: to translate research into skills frameworks and training for users, customers, and developers of AI, and to contribute to the call for the UK AI Strategy's Online Academy.

Public and Policy Engagement: working with the network of policy makers, regulators, and key stakeholders to respond to arising concerns, need for new standards, build capacity for public accountability and provide evidence-based advice to the public and policymakers.

Funded by the Responsible AI UK Impact Accelerator, project AEGIS sees Bangor University's Emotional AI Lab partnering with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Monash University (Indonesia) and engaging the Information Commissioner's Office (UK).
The goal of AEGIS is to host a series of workshops, assemble a diverse expert working group and develop a ‘technical standard’ to address use of emulated empathy in general-purpose artificial intelligence systems for human-AI partnerships.

Provisionally titled Recommended Practice for Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in Partner-based General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems, this IEEE standard will define ethical considerations, detail good practices, and augment and complement international human rights and regional law.
Use cases encompass general-purpose artificial intelligence products marketed as ‘empathic partners’, ‘personal AI’, ‘co-pilots’, ‘assistants’, and related phrasing for ‘human-AI partnering’. Current and nascent domains of use include work, therapy, education, life coaching, legal problems, fitness, entertainment, and more.

These systems raise ethical questions that are global in nature, yet benefitting from diverse ethical approaches, especially where systems feed into the design of human-centered technologies. Some ethical questions are specific and unique, including psychological interactions and dependencies, child appropriateness, fiduciary issues, animism, and manipulation through partnerships with general-purpose artificial intelligence systems.

The project augments the Emotional AI Lab's UK-Japan social science work by conducting a UK national demographically representative survey of UK teen users of AI companions, and considering results in light of studies on AI ethics and AI literacy.