The impact of the adoption of Artificial Intelligence applications on the mental health and social interactions of university students in Hong Kong: A mixed methods study

There is a growing adoption of various artificial intelligence (A.I.) applications among people in Hong Kong but there is a notion that humans may develop a close relationship toward A.I. Whilst interacting with A.I. via a personal mobile device, A.I. could act like an artificial companion of human 24/7 which changes users’ life and affects their mental health. This study attempts to investigate the use pattern of AI applications in daily life and how the adoption of A.I. applications may create impact on users’ mental health and affect users’ interaction with others by focusing on the use pattern of University students in a particular A.I. application, i.e. A.I. assistant Siri. A survey will be used to collect quantitative data targeting 300 university students in Hong Kong, followed by a semi-directive individual interview to discover how students’ experience of using Siri over time will affect their feeling of loneliness. A form of life analysis will be carried out further to track some of the ethical consequences of changes in the lifestyle of university students caused by the adoption of this new technology. This study will be useful for further investigations related to the impact of this new form of technology on people’s health and well-being.