Highlights
- We tested OceanSpeak, a novel approach to marine environmental education that integrates an AI wildlife agent with VR.
- All participants experienced a significant increase in ocean connectedness and nature connectedness.
- Adjusting for covariates, AI-powered conversation with a virtual harbor seal led to greater empathy for seals.
- AI-powered conversation increased pro-environmental engagement among participants with prior experiences with seals.
- AI-powered conversation improved knowledge of seals for some participants but reduced knowledge of environmental actions.
Abstract
This study presents an empirical investigation of OceanSpeak—a unique combination of virtual reality (VR) scuba diving and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) designed to educate about how ocean acidification and overfishing impact marine life. This pre-registered study examined the effect of interacting with an AI-powered harbor seal on ocean connectedness, empathy with seals, pro-ocean behaviors, and knowledge. The participants were 106 adults affiliated with a university in California, the United States. Participants in the experimental group (N = 53) engaged with the complete version of OceanSpeak, including AI-powered conversation with a virtual harbor seal. We implemented a yoked control design such that participants in the control group (N = 53) were exposed to identical content but experienced another participant’s AI-enabled conversation. In addition, we measured a number of individual differences related to their views on the environment and specific experience with seals. All participants experienced a significant increase in ocean connectedness as a result of the intervention. The control condition outperformed the AI condition regarding knowledge of pro-environmental actions, whereas a small subset of AI participants demonstrated better understanding of seal-specific issues. Without accounting for individual differences, there were no significant differences between conditions in terms of ocean connectedness, empathy, and protective behaviors. However, post hoc analyses indicated that after accounting for baseline ocean connectedness and nature connectedness and their interactions with condition, AI-powered conversation led to significantly more empathy with seals. Moreover, AI-powered conversation with a virtual seal increased protective ocean behaviors among participants with prior seal exposure, suggesting previous experiences with the actor who is speaking in conversational AI may improve the outcome of those interactions.
Petersen G. B., Santoso M., Fauville G., Hancock J. T. & Bailenson J. N., 2026. VR scuba diving with harbor seals increases ocean connectedness, and the effect of conversational AI on pro-environmental engagement depends on prior experience with seals. Computers & Education: X Reality 9: 100181. doi: 10.1016/j.cexr.2026.100181. Article.
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