Does a Chatbot have a Face? Examining Politeness Strategies in AI Discourse

Humans have evolved to incorporate social concerns, like face into its structures. If ‘face’ is driven by emotions (Goffman, 1955 and Brown and Levinson 1987), then only humans should exhibit it. This study explores whether computer-assisted AI- ChatGPT, Gemini, MetaAI, and Bing Copilot- chatbots also employ face strategies. The results of the study reveal that chatbots exhibit FTA and FSA. The study submits that the fact that AI models exhibit “face management” without having a ‘face’ depicts that one does not need to be human to engage in social dynamics like politeness. Since chatbots use human language, and face is an inherent pragmatic feature of human language, AI chatbots exhibit face not because they desire it but as an inherent feature of natural language itself. Since chatbots lack emotions, it would be correct to say that they do not consciously express face as an intentional act. Rather, they exhibit them as inherent features of the natural language on which they are trained, reflecting the pragmatic functions embedded in linguistic structures. This study concludes that ‘face’ is neither predefined, or conscious framework, nor is it a programmed feature of chatbots that causes them to exhibit such language features.