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Hi! My name is Yuqi Xiao. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

I am interested in how people build meaningful connections with generative AI chatbots. As part of my dissertation, I am conducting an interview study about the experiences of adults in the United States who have a close or meaningful connection with a specific generative AI chatbot. I also want to emphasize that I’m not approaching AI companionship as something inherently good or bad, and the project is not focused on sensationalizing these relationships or looking specifically for a “dark side.” I’m genuinely interested in understanding how people experience these relationships in their everyday lives, in their own terms.

I am looking to speak with adults who:

• Are 18 or older
• Currently live in the United States
• Have a close or meaningful connection with a specific generative AI chatbot. You might think of the chatbot as a friend, companion, partner, confidant, or something else entirely. The connection does not need to be romantic.

What participation involves:

• One individual online interview in English, approximately 45–60 minutes, primarily via Zoom
• Audio-only participation is completely fine
• You may skip any question, take a break, or stop at any time
• The interview will be audio-recorded only with your verbal permission; no video will be recorded
• A $25 thank-you payment once the interview ends through Tremendous.

Information shared during the interview will be handled confidentially. Additional information about the study, including privacy and confidentiality, will be provided before you decide whether to participate.

This is independent academic research conducted through Arizona State University. It is not affiliated with Reddit, r/Chatbots, or any chatbot company.

Interested? Please send me a Reddit DM at u/YuqiXiaoresearch. I will send you more information, and there is no obligation to participate.

This study has been reviewed by the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board (STUDY00024573). The study is conducted under the supervision of Dr. Joris Van Ouytsel ([joris.vanouytsel@asu.edu](mailto:joris.vanouytsel@asu.edu)), Associate Professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

Your participation means a lot to me, looking forward to hearing from you!

Hey everyone. For 18 months, I’ve been working on something that started as an annoyance of mine: every AI character I set up would slowly drift. The personality got flatter, it forgot things, and eventually it just sounded like generic ChatGPT.

So I built Orion Forge. The main idea is to separate who the character is from what it has experienced:

Identity (values, behavior, boundaries) lives in a read-only memory store, so it can’t get overwritten by chat history

Experience gets its own memory store that grows as you talk

Each turn, the engine assembles both, plus knowledge notes and tools, into one clean system prompt

It runs in the browser, and you can use your own API keys or hosted models. There’s no subscription. New accounts get $2 in credits, and hosted models cost 2× the raw API price (BYOK is free).

It’s still early and I know there are rough edges. I’d really like feedback, especially on How to make it easiest to load and use quickly.

Demo it here for free with no sign-in. https://soulscript.orionforge.chat/demo

Link to main site: https://orionforge.chat

Happy to answer questions about how it works.

I’ve been looking more seriously at ai shopping assistants lately, and one thing I want to know WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES A CUSTOMER TRUST THE RECOMMENDATION?

As a store owner, my first concern is not the recommendation itself. It’s whether the AI knows when to speak. Random popups and constant “need help?” messages can get annoying fast, and I’d rather not lose a shopper because the store won’t leave them alone.

I’ve been looking at how different shopping assistants handle recommendations, and the gap between them is bigger than I expected.

If anyone here has tested this on their own store, I’d love to hear.

Curious how people here build agents for a specific use case.

I keep landing on: better to compose the right pieces and routines for the job than to keep prompting a single general assistant harder.

If you assemble agents from modules / tools / workflows — what composition pattern actually held up? What turned into spaghetti?

Are there bots that are like realistic texting (e.g. messages throughout the day, even when unprompted)? If so, what are they called?

**# 🏆 Saylo Reddit Contest: Mythical Romance 🏆**

✨ Where legends awaken, and love becomes eternal! ✨

Calling all storytellers, artists, and dreamers! Our newest Reddit contest is here, and we’re diving into a world of ancient legends, mythical creatures, forbidden bonds, and enchanting romance!

**🌙 Theme: Mythical Romance**

Create your own magical love story featuring anything from a mysterious forest spirit and a wandering knight to a celestial goddess and a mortal, or an entirely original mythical romance!

**🎨 What to Create:**

* A captivating Saylo character or duo.

* A beautiful, original character image.

* A romantic tale filled with magic, mystery, and emotion.

**🌻 Mandatory Emojis: 🏞️ 🌻 🪶**

All three emojis must be included in your submission!

**## 🎁 Rewards**

🥇 1st Place: 2,000 Saylo Gems 🥈 2nd Place: 1,000 Saylo Gems 🥉 3rd Place: 700 Saylo Gems 🏅 Honorable Mentions: 200 Saylo Gems each

**## 📅 Contest Deadline**

**October 10, 2026**

Make sure to submit your entry before the contest closes!

**## 📜 How to Participate**

1. Create your mythical romance character or story on Saylo.

2. Post your submission in the designated Reddit contest thread.

3. Use the **“Mythical Romance”** flair when posting your contest entry.

4. Include all three mandatory emojis: 🏞️ 🌻 🪶

💫 Let your imagination run wild! Whether it’s a love written in the stars, a forbidden romance between rival kingdoms, or a bond that defies the laws of magic, we want to see your world come alive.

❤️ The realms are waiting. The legends are yours to write.

#Saylo #SayloContest #MythicalRomance #FantasyRomance #AIStorytelling

https://www.reddit.com/r/SayloCreative/s/Rg7YQXiFF0

If you’d like to have a moody seance with an immortal who loves to spook and scare, then check out and have a free chat with GANGLIA, the Fallen King of Halloween

https://ganglia-ai.com/

It is true I made this. In that sense it is self-promotion. But it is also just a cool chatbot. I’m not asking for anything – just wanting to share a neat thing I put an enormous amount of time into and ask for nothing in return other than that you enjoy it lol

a site that can help you make detailed character roleplay character sheet. i am looking for a site that can help you make character sheet for roleplay based on images or pictures i can show you some examples if i must be more detailed on this

I’ve been looking around for an app where you can have Facetime style video calls with an AI.

Recently came across Vidy and was impressed by the quality of the real time video. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it and what you think of it? Video call length is a bit limited for free users but that’s to be expected.

I’m on samsung (s26ultra) and when I go to circle to search and then Google ai I can chat about the screen ecc, but how do i find the chronology of all the chats? (Using Opera browser) (Google ai NOT gemini)