Exploring the association between use of conversational artificial intelligence and social capital: Survey evidence from Hong Kong

Abstract

Media use–social capital research has studied traditional and social media use and associated social capital. Still, little is known about whether social capital would be cultivated or damaged by the use of conversational artificial intelligence (AI). This study explores the associations between conversational AI use and various measures of social capital using a territory-wide survey of an online representative sample in Hong Kong ( n = 1022). The results showed that conversational AI users ( n = 398) were more likely to have more offline and online bonding and bridging social capital, social trust, and civic participation than non-users ( n = 624). For the conversational AI users, intensity and frequency of conversational AI use were the positive predictors of the social capital measures. The findings demonstrated larger effect sizes for online bonding and bridging social capital than offline bonding and bridging social capital.