“Should I Follow the Human, or Follow the Robot?” — Robots in Power Can Have More Influence Than Humans on Decision-Making

Artificially intelligent (AI) agents such as robots are increasingly delegated power in work settings, yet it remains unclear how power functions in interactions with both humans and robots, especially when they directly compete for influence. Here we present an experiment where every participant was matched with one human and one robot to perform decision-making tasks. By manipulating who has power, we created three conditions: human as leader, robot as leader, and a no-power-difference control. The results showed that the participants were significantly more influenced by the leader, regardless of whether the leader was a human or a robot. However, they generally held a more positive attitude toward the human than the robot, although they considered whichever was in power as more competent. This study illustrates the importance of power for future Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Human-AI Interaction (HAI) research, as it addresses pressing concerns of society about AI-powered intelligent agents.