Generative AI and co-creation on social media

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Maggie Mengqing

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gao, Yang
• Ng, Yee Man Margaret
• Maslowska, Ewa
• Liang, Hai

• Social media
• Generative AI
• Content creation
• user engagement

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Maggie Zhang

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129769