When LLMs Recognize Your Space: Research on Experiences with Spatially Aware LLM Agents

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have evolved into LLM agents that can use the user conversation context and respond according to the roles of the LLM agents. Recent studies have suggested that LLM-based agents can be used as human-like partners in social interactions. However, the role of the environmental context, particularly spatial information of user space, in the interaction between humans and LLM agents has not been explored. In this study, participants engaged in counselling conversations under three different conditions based on their spatial awareness levels. The dependent measures included copresence, trust, therapist alliances, and self-disclosure. The results suggested that participants in the condition where the LLM actively reflected spatial information generally reported higher levels of user experience. Interestingly, when the LLM actively reflected the spatial context of the user, the participants tended to describe themselves and express their emotions more. These findings suggest that spatially aware LLM agents can contribute to better social interactions between humans and LLM agents. Our findings can be used to design future augmented reality applications in the counselling, education, and healthcare industries.