SENTIMENT: Secure intimate communication with chatbots

Prof. Joel Baumann (New Media, Kunsthochschule Kassel) is a partner in the BMBF-funded research project "Secure self-disclosure in intimate communication with dialog systems" (SENTIMENT). Laura Därr supports the project as a research associate.

Motivation
Thanks to large language models, chatbots have recently made considerable leaps in quality. Such dialog systems can now generate natural-looking responses to a wide variety of queries, respond to follow-up questions and even allow longer conversations to take place. This brings interaction with chatbots ever closer to an authentic exchange with a human being. In Germany, more and more users are communicating regularly with chatbots. This often blurs the perceived boundaries between artificial intelligence (AI) and a real communication partner. Companies behind some applications are already deliberately exploiting this gray area and advertising their products with the catchphrase "AI friend". In such applications, users can activate a romantic relationship mode, for example, which allows them to have emotional (video) conversations with a previously configured artificial person. Chatbots can therefore also simulate intimate interpersonal communication. This includes words of self-disclosure, confirmation, trust and affection. As a result, users place their trust in the systems and reveal intimate, personal details. So far, however, this aspect of digital intimacy has hardly been investigated in the context of privacy research.

Aims and approach
The aim of the SENTIMENT project is to conduct interdisciplinary research into the processes involved in communication with chatbots when people disclose sensitive or intimate information. To this end, researchers from the fields of psychology, computer science, law and art are working together. Based on an inventory of intimate self-disclosure in communication situations with chatbots, the researchers carry out a risk assessment with regard to data protection and user self-determination. From this, they derive targeted privacy-by-design mechanisms to counteract the previously identified risks and evaluate these as part of an empirical study. The project team also involves the public in the work. This is done, for example, through an art exhibition on the topic of "Protecting intimate communication", designed as a dialog forum in which the researchers enter into an exchange with the public and in turn incorporate the knowledge gained into the project.

Project information The SENTIMENT project is the subject of the funding guideline "Platform Privacy - IT Security Protects Privacy and Supports Democracy" as part of the German government's research framework program on IT security "Digital. Secure. Sovereign". The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project (duration: April 2024 - March 2027) with € 1.24 million.

Collaboration partners:

• University of Duisburg-Essen, INTITEC (Intimacy with and through technology) Junior Research Group, Dr. Jessica Szczuka (coordination),
• Kunsthochschule Kassel, Professorship for New Media, Prof. Joel Baumann,
• Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faculty of Computer Science, HGI and Excellence Cluster CASA, Dr. Veelasha Monsaamy and Dr. Theodor Schnitzler (Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, Department of Advanced Computing Sciences).

Further information can be found on the BMBF website.