Can People Distinguish Human and AI Agency in Humanoid Teleoperation? A Preliminary Study of Agency Perception

Abstract

Can people distinguish between human and AI agency in humanoid teleoperation? To explore this question, we developed \textit{Ghost-in-the-Loop}, a teleoperation framework that supports both human-operated and AI-generated control of a robot's voice, facial expressions, and gestures while maintaining a consistent embodiment. We conducted a preliminary online study ($N=50$) in which participants viewed short interaction clips generated by either a Human Operator or an AI Control and judged the perceived source of control. Results suggest that participants often struggled to distinguish between the two conditions in brief interactions. Qualitative responses indicate that judgments were primarily influenced by perceived naturalness, temporal coordination, and consistency across speech, facial expression, and gesture. These findings provide initial insights into agency perception in embodied human--AI communication and motivate future investigations of blended human--AI telepresence systems.