Here are some links to literature on the topic of human-AI-friendship. This list will be continously expanded.
Overview Articles and Books
Earp, B.D., Porsdam Mann, S., Aboy, M., Awad, E., Betzler, M., Botes, M., Calcott, R. et al. (2025) Relational Norms for Human-AI Cooperation. arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.12102.
Kempt, H. (2023): Synthetic Friends. A Philosophy of Human-Machine Friendship. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13631-3
Brooks, R. (2021). Artificial Intimacy. Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Artificial Matchmakers. Columbia University Press.
Philosophical Arguments
Munn, N., & Weijers, D. (2025). Human-AI-Friendship is Possible and Can be Good. in Hacker, P. (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford University Press). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0076
Kempt, H. (2025). Human-AI-Friendship: An Optimistic Account. in Hacker, P. (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford University Press). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0060
Ryland, H. (2021) ‘It’s friendship, Jim, but not as we know it: A degrees-of-friendship view of human-robot friendships’, Minds and Machines, 31, 377-293.
Munn, N. & Weijers, D. (2023). Can we be friends with AI? What risks would arise from the proliferation of such friendships? International Conference on Computer Ethics, 1(1).
Weijers, D., Munn, N. (2022). Human-AI Friendship: Rejecting the Appropriate Sentimentality Criterion. In: Müller, V.C. (eds) Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2021. PTAI 2021. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 63. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09153-7_17
Danaher, J. (2020). The Philosophical Case for Robot Friendship. Journal of Posthuman Studies.
Empirical Data and Reports
Reinecke, M.G., Kappes, A., Porsdam Mann, S. et al. (2025). The need for an empirical research program regarding human–AI relational norms. AI Ethics 5, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00631-2
Li, H., & Zhang, R. (2024). Finding Love in Algorithms: Deciphering the Emotional Contexts of Close Encounters with AI Chatbots. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Ciriello, R., Hannon, O., Chen, A. Y., & Vaast, E. (2024). Ethical tensions in human-AI companionship: A dialectical inquiry into Replika.
Brandtzaeg, P. B., Skjuve, M., & Følstad, A. (2022). My AI friend: How users of a social chatbot understand their human–AI friendship. Human Communication Research, 48(3), 404-429.