Participants were told they would be matched with another participant for a one-minute video call to discuss what they were looking forward to this year. Their partner was in fact a PAL powered by Griffin-Lite, generating her face, voice, and responses in real time. After the call, participants were asked to write down their partner’s answer to the question and to rate their partner on several axes around naturalness and trustworthiness. They were also asked to rate the conversation itself: how well it flowed, and whether they felt their partner was really listening. Only at the end of the survey were participants asked whether it had crossed their mind that their partner might not be a real person, and if so, when. Every participant was then told that their partner had been an AI model.

Results

Of the 54 participants who spoke with Griffin-Lite, 26 believed their partner was a real person. Participants on both sides were confident in their answer: those who said real averaged 79% confidence, and those who said AI averaged 81%. Over half of participants said the possibility had not crossed their mind during the call, and nearly all of that group went on to say their partner was real. Those who did suspect tended to suspect within the first 20 seconds.