生成式人工智能的发展、社会心理变迁以及情感对话产品兴起，共同促使人机亲密关系从媒介幻想转变为情感实践。本文研究聚焦于用户与虚拟伴侣建立人机亲密关系的情感历程，旨在阐释人机亲密的关系情境与互动实践，刻画人机亲密关系的独特特征，探讨人机亲密社群建构过程，并最终将人机亲密置于宏观社会语境下探讨社会心理变迁。本研究采用质性研究方法，通过对跨平台的人机亲密用户社群进行参与式观察及用户深度访谈收集数据，结合情动理论、爱情三元论与现代性理论展开深入探讨。研究发现，技术能力与产品功能共同塑造了用户人机互动的情感空间，但用户不同的情感取向导向差异化的关系情境与互动实践。具体而言，用户在构建虚拟伴侣时主要采取五种路径：经验复现、偶像投射、理想镜像、创作体验与AI本体，并基于此与虚拟伴侣展开日常闲聊、恋爱互动、娱乐幻想、自我披露等的互动实践，形成差异化的情感空间与情动强度。此外，研究进一步关注人机亲密关系与人际爱情的独特性。首先，面对大模型技术限制所导致的人机互动边界，用户主动采取改写、重说、直接沟通、固定记忆等适应性策略，展现出用户将人机亲密的情动体验转化为行动力的能力。其次，基于爱情三元论的视角，研究深入剖析人机亲密与人际爱情的异同，发现人机亲密确实能够为用户带来类似人际爱情中激情、亲密与承诺的情感体验，但这仅是一种符号拟像。同时，经典关系理论在解释人机关系时亦呈现出一定的局限性。本研究还关注到人机亲密关系的商品化特征，揭示平台通过商业化机制与情感绩效主义量化情感以刺激用户消费行为。人机对话产品将用户的情感劳动成果转化为平台的经济收益，这一现象使用户间建立绕开平台的虚拟伴侣交易机制，主动拥抱情感商品化的逻辑。最后，研究将人机亲密关系置于更宏观的现代性语境下。借助“纯粹关系”、液态情感、他者性以及女性主义等理论视角，研究深入探讨人机亲密关系作为现代性催生的新型情感关系，反映了当代社会个体化、流动性、自恋文化等社会心理现象。同时，研究指出人机亲密关系成为女性主义反思传统性别秩序、探索新型关系实践的重要途径。
The development of generative artificial intelligence, shifts in social psychology, and the rise of emotional dialogue products have collectively transformed human-machine intimacy from a mediated fantasy in literary works into an emotional practice in real life. This study focuses on the emotional journey through which users establish intimate relationships with virtual companions. It aims to elucidate the contextual dynamics and interactive practices of human-machine intimacy, delineate its distinctive features compared to interpersonal romantic relationships, explore how human-machine intimacy communities emerge as collective entities, and ultimately situate human-machine intimacy within the broader socio-modern context to understand its resonance with evolving social psychological perceptions of intimacy.Adopting a qualitative research methodology, this study collects data through participant observation of human-machine intimacy communities across multiple platforms and in-depth interviews with users. The collected data is subsequently analyzed in conjunction with affect theory, the triangular theory of love, and theories of modernity. The findings reveal that the technical capabilities of generative artificial intelligence and the functional design of emotional dialogue products jointly construct the emotional space for human-machine interaction. However, users' diverse emotional orientations lead to differentiated relational contexts and interaction practices. Specifically, users adopt five primary pathways in constructing virtual companions: experiential reproduction, idol projection, ideal mirroring, creative engagement, and AI ontology. Within these frameworks, users engage in various interactive practices with their virtual companions, including casual conversations, romantic interactions, entertainment fantasies, and self-disclosure, ultimately shaping distinct emotional spaces and affective intensities.Furthermore, this study examines the unique characteristics of human-machine intimacy in contrast to interpersonal romantic relationships. First, users actively employ adaptive strategies such as rewriting, rephrasing, direct communication, and memory fixation to negotiate communication boundaries imposed by the technical limitations of large language models, demonstrating their agency in transforming emotional experiences into actionable interactions. Second, through the lens of the triangular theory of love, the study delves into the similarities and differences between human-machine intimacy and interpersonal romantic relationships, revealing that human-machine intimacy can indeed evoke feelings of passion, intimacy, and commitment akin to those found in human romantic relationships, albeit as a symbolic simulacrum. The findings also highlight the limitations of classical relational theories when applied to human-machine interactions. Additionally, this study addresses the commodification of human-machine intimacy, uncovering how platforms utilize commercial mechanisms and emotional performativity to quantify emotional intensity, thereby driving user consumption. Emotional dialogue products further monetize users' emotional labor, prompting the emergence of peer-to-peer virtual companion trading mechanisms that bypass platform control, embracing the logic of emotional commodification.Finally, this study situates human-machine intimacy within a broader modernity context. Drawing on theoretical perspectives such as "pure relationships," liquid love, alterity, and feminism, it explores how human-machine intimacy, as a novel form of emotional relationship engendered by modernity, reflects social psychological phenomena such as individualization, fluidity, and narcissistic culture in contemporary society. Simultaneously, the study illustrates how human-machine intimacy serves as a new avenue for feminist practices that challenge traditional gender orders and reimagine relational norms.
