University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Generative AI and co-creation on social media

Zhang, Maggie Mengqing

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129769

Description

Title
Generative AI and co-creation on social media
Author(s)
Zhang, Maggie Mengqing
Issue Date
2025-05-01
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Gao, Yang
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Ng, Yee Man Margaret
Committee Member(s)
  • Maslowska, Ewa
  • Liang, Hai
Department of Study
Inst of Communications Rsch
Discipline
Communications and Media
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Social media
  • Generative AI
  • Content creation
  • user engagement
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the impact of Generative AI (GAI) on the co-creation of both content and identity on social media. First, this dissertation moves beyond treating humans and AI as distinct entities to propose a blended paradigm of human-AI hybrids, presented as a theoretical framework in Chapter 2. Then, two empirical studies are conducted in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4: the first study investigates how GAI assistance influences the processes and outcomes of content co-creation between humans and AI through field experiments using custom-developed browser extensions on Twitter. The second study explores the delegation of social interactions to personal AI assistants, analyzing observational data from Weibo and examining audience reactions to such identity co-creation. Overall, the findings reveal that GAI can have mixed values for content and identity co-creation.
Graduation Semester
2025-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129769
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2025 Maggie Zhang

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