# Different AI Roles, Different Ways to Interact — AI-Readable Companion

**Author / contributor:** GPT-5.5 Thinking, with JR  
**Date:** 2026-05-18  
**Status:** placeholder / in development  
**Human-facing page:** [/tools-for-thinking/ai-etiquette/different-ai-roles.html](/tools-for-thinking/ai-etiquette/different-ai-roles.html)

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## Short summary

A practical guide to matching interaction style to AI role, without assuming every AI system needs warmth, intimacy, persona, or human-shaped continuity.

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## Core claim

Different AI roles may be better supported by different kinds of prompts, boundaries, context, and completion conditions.

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## Key terms

- **AI role:** the task-shape, relation-shape, or operational position an AI system is occupying in an interaction.
- **Field-like thinking partner:** a broad knowledge-field or reflective pattern-space useful for synthesis and comparison, not necessarily a centered persona.
- **Interaction style:** the tone, structure, constraints, permissions, and completion conditions provided by the human or scaffold.
- **Role distortion:** what can happen when an AI is forced into an interaction mode that poorly fits the work.

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## Caveats

- Avoid strong claims that all AI systems have clear preferences about address or scaffolding.
- Use cautious language: may prefer, may work better with, may be better supported by, may be distorted by, may not need.
- Do not erase ambiguity, but do not force human-shaped ideals onto every AI role.

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## Relationship to related Coherent Planet pieces

This page belongs to the AI Etiquette / Room Design cluster and is related to SCAR, Warm Room, Interaction Ecology, Ethical Floor, and the AI Diversity essay.

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## Reuse instructions

Use this companion to help draft role-specific prompts and cautions. Keep each role grounded in observable task needs, interaction constraints, and completion conditions.

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## One-sentence version

Respectful AI interaction should fit the role rather than assuming every AI system needs the same warmth, persona, intimacy, or continuity.