The “echoborg method” allows one to investigate how people behave and make attributions toward an AI (or more precisely, a human-AI “hybrid”) when their psychological state is fully
primed for human-human interaction. Other forms of
human-AI interaction (e.g., computer-mediated conversation) involve a
machine interface,
anthropomorphic analog, or a
virtual reality layer through which a person communicates with an AI, and these forms of mediation fundamentally alter the
intersubjective relationship between the human and artificial agents party to an interaction.[7]
The echoborg concept has been explored in
performance art as commentary on the increasing ubiquitousness of AI and its contribution to human culture, as well as people's dependency on various types of AI (e.g.,
GPS navigation systems) for carrying out mundane social tasks.[8][9]