Collaborative Autoethnography as a Method to Explore Short-Lived Social AI Chatbots

Meta’s brief release of its social AI chatbots highlighted the challenges of studying systems that are both short-lived and relationally complex. In response, we conducted a 10-day collaborative autoethnography to rapidly and meaningfully engage with the product. As the first application of this method to social AI chatbots, our study demonstrates its value for examining ephemeral and emotionally complex AI systems.