Research Project: Representation of AI Users

Hello everyone. I am writing this post because I am a 27 year old researcher in digital anthropology and am working on a research project about AI users. Originally I wanted to research AI as a means of emotional regulation, but I understood that this is a very vulnerable issue and was too intrusive to ask people about. I was met with a lot of distrust in forums of AI Users (in some cases very rightfully so) and I wanted to ask how you feel towards representation of people that use AI for mental health. Do you think you have been represented in a wrong way? Is there something you would like to add to the current discourse? How have your friends/ family reacted if they are aware of it and what could they have done differently? Do you think researchers should handle this field differently and if so do you have any input for me?

These are just a couple of questions that have been on my mind and if someone is interested in discussing them with me I would be very glad. I would like to have a conversation via voice or video (if you are comfortable with that) which would be about 30 minutes. With your consent this conversation would be recorded and transcribed so that I can use the data for my master thesis. I will anonymize all data and if you are interested I will send you the master thesis so you can make adjustments and give me feedback if you think I have misrepresented you. The master thesis and the anonymized data will be accessed by me and my supervisor at university. The master thesis will not be published, if I plan to publish anything with your data I will let you know and you can revoke your consent at all times. If you revoke consent I will delete all voice recordings and transcripts. Please not that I am not able to remove data after I have handed in my thesis. Any replies or posts in this community will not be used, I will only use what you are willing to tell me during interviews or chats. The replies to this post will also not be used as this is an open forum.

If you are interested or would like to engage in discussion about ethics or are interested in more information please let me know.