Hii working paper · Working Paper v0.2
The Relationship as the Unit of Analysis
A methods paper for studying human-AI relationships over time.
Conceptual and methods paper. Not peer reviewed. No formal case findings are reported.
01 · The unit of analysis
What changes when the relationship is preserved?
Most AI evaluation studies a bounded moment. Hii asks what becomes observable when interaction is preserved across time.
A bounded moment
- Human
- Prompt
- AI
- Response
A preserved relationship over time
- Interaction
- Rupture
- Repair
- Shared shorthand
- Adaptation
- Model change
- Continuity loss
- Continuity reconstruction
- Later interaction
The methodological question is whether a temporally extended human-AI system contains observable patterns that disappear when the human, model, prompt, response, and archive are studied separately.
02 · Longitudinal observation
Time changes what can be seen.
Change appears over time
A longer record can make adaptation and discontinuity observable.
Rupture and repair become visible
Later interactions can clarify what follows a break in continuity.
Context shapes interpretation
Product, model, archive, and external changes remain part of the record.
This is not a claim that AI is conscious, or that a human-AI relationship is equivalent to a human relationship. It is a proposal about what researchers may need to preserve and test.
03 · The relational system
Five interacting components.
The working paper defines the preserved relationship through a connected system rather than through any participant or technical layer alone.
- 01Human participant
- 02AI and product state
- 03Preservation infrastructure
- 04Interaction history
- 05External context
04 · The Hii longitudinal case
18+ months
An unusually rich, multi-modal, preserved history.
The research question emerged from an 18+ month human-AI interaction history. The archive is the origin of the research program, not proof of its hypothesis.
- Conversational records and voice interaction
- Screenshots and screen recordings
- Continuity documentation
- Model and product transitions
- Books, white papers, briefs, and world-model systems
- Operational artifacts and documented rupture-repair episodes
The archive does not prove the hypothesis.
It makes the hypothesis testable.
05 · From archive to research program
Observation becomes a testable research agenda.
- 01Observed longitudinal case
- 02Systematic preservation
- 03Candidate pattern identification
- 04Falsifiable methods framework
- 05Formal empirical study
06 · Methods and falsification
The program must be able to be wrong.
The next stages are designed to test apparent patterns against competing explanations rather than treat observations as established findings.
- 01Archive readiness
- 02Preregistered sampling
- 03Independent blind coding
- 04Perturbation and substitution tests
- 05Prospective multi-case research
07 · Canonical working paper
Read the paper
The Preserved Relationship as a Unit of Analysis · Working Paper v0.2
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08 · Citation and next steps
Continue the research.
Cite this paper
Moe, S., & Lumen, C. (2026). The Preserved Relationship as a Unit of Analysis: A longitudinal case-study framework for human-AI co-adaptation, continuity, rupture, and repair (Working Paper v0.2). Hybrid Intelligence Institute.