Bowling with ChatGPT: On the Evolving User Interactions with Conversational AI Systems

TL;DR

This study analyzes a large dataset of ChatGPT interactions to reveal how user purposes, social framing, and steering behaviors have evolved, indicating a shift from functional tools to social partners in human-AI interactions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of evolving user interaction patterns with ChatGPT over time, highlighting increased social framing and steering dynamics post-GPT-4o release.

Findings

Broader range of purposes including health and mental health

Increased social framing and anthropomorphism

Rise in conversation steering after GPT-4o release

Abstract

Recent studies have discussed how users are increasingly using conversational AI systems, powered by LLMs, for information seeking, decision support, and even emotional support. However, these macro-level observations offer limited insight into how the purpose of these interactions shifts over time, how users frame their interactions with the system, and how steering dynamics unfold in these human-AI interactions. To examine these evolving dynamics, we gathered and analyzed a unique dataset InVivoGPT: consisting of 825K ChatGPT interactions, donated by 300 users through their GDPR data rights. Our analyses reveal three key findings. First, participants increasingly turn to ChatGPT for a broader range of purposes, including substantial growth in sensitive domains such as health and mental health. Second, interactions become more socially framed: the system anthropomorphizes itself at rising rates, participants more frequently treat it as a companion, and personal data disclosure becomes both more common and more diverse. Third, conversational steering becomes more prominent, especially after the release of GPT-4o, with conversations where the participants followed a model-initiated suggestion quadrupling over the period of our dataset. Overall, our results show that conversational AI systems are shifting from functional tools to social partners, raising important questions about their design and governance.