The Triadic Loop: A Framework for Negotiating Alignment in AI Co-hosted Livestreaming

arXiv cs.AI / 4/22/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper argues that existing AI alignment frameworks often assume a simple one-user/one-AI (dyadic) interaction model, which breaks down in real-time, multi-user livestream contexts.
  • It introduces the “Triadic Loop,” framing alignment in AI co-hosted livestreaming as a temporally reinforced, bidirectional adaptation process across three relationships: streamer↔AI co-host, AI co-host↔audience, and streamer↔audience.
  • The authors emphasize that bidirectional alignment requires continuous reshaping by every actor, so misalignment in any sub-loop can destabilize the overall social system.
  • They propose “strategic misalignment” as a possible mechanism to maintain community engagement, alongside three relational evaluation constructs for assessing these dynamics.
  • The work also positions AI co-hosts as more than mediators—treating them as performative participants and community members that influence collective meaning-making, with design implications for sustaining social coherence.

Abstract

AI systems are increasingly embedded in multi-user social environments, yet most alignment frameworks conceptualize interaction as a dyadic relationship between a single user and an AI system. Livestreaming platforms challenge this assumption: interaction unfolds among streamers and audiences in real time, producing dynamic affective and social feedback loops. In this paper, we introduce the Triadic Loop, a conceptual framework that reconceptualizes alignment in AI co-hosted livestreaming as a temporally reinforced process of bidirectional adaptation among three actors: streamer \leftrightarrow AI co-host, AI co-host \leftrightarrow audience, and streamer \leftrightarrow audience. Unlike instruction-following paradigms, bidirectional alignment requires each actor to continuously reshape the others, meaning misalignment in any sub-loop can destabilize the broader system. Drawing on literature from multi-party interaction, collaborative AI, and relational agents, we articulate how AI co-hosts function not only as mediators but as performative participants and community members shaping collective meaning-making. We further propose "strategic misalignment" as a mechanism for sustaining community engagement and introduce three relational evaluation constructs grounded in established instruments. The framework contributes a model of dynamic multi-party alignment, an account of cross-loop reinforcement, and design implications for AI co-hosts that sustain social coherence in participatory media environments.