Communicating and collaborating with computers

Shaaron Ainsworth

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Social Computing

Communicating and collaborating with other peopleCommunicating and collaborating with computers

Do we want our computers to be human like?

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

AnthropomorphismAttributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects (e.g. cars, computers)Well known phenomenon in advertising and filmsCan be used to enhance the human like qualities of computers by giving them personalities, faces etc.Aims to make user experience more enjoyable, more motivating, make people feel at ease, reduce anxiety……does it?

“Hello Chris! Nice to see you again. Welcome back. Now what were we doing last time? Oh yes, exercise 5. Let’s start

again.”or

“User 24, commence exercise 5.”

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Virtual characters

http://alice.pandorabots.com/Increasingly appearing on our screens

Web, characters in videogames, learning companions, wizards, newsreaders, popstars

Aims to provides a persona that is welcoming, has personality and makes user feel involved with them

ButLead people into false sense of belief, enticing them to confide personal secrets with chatterbotsAnnoying and frustrating or just plain c**p

E.g. Clippy

Not trustworthy virtual e-commerce assistants?, Miss Boo

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Virtual characters: agentsAn autonomous agent is a system situated within and a part of an environment that

senses that environment and acts on it, over time, in pursuit of its own agenda to effect what it senses in the future.

Property Other Names Meaning

reactive (sensing and acting) responds in a timely fashion to changes in the environment

autonomous exercises control over its own actions

goal-oriented pro-active purposeful does not simply act in response to the environment

temporally continuous is a continuously running process

communicative socially able communicates with other agents, perhaps including people

learning adaptive changes its behaviour based on its previous experience

mobile able to transport itself from one machine to another

flexible actions are not scripted

character believable "personality" and emotional state.

http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~franklin/AgentProg.html

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

(i)Synthetic characters

(e.g. Silas the dog Blumberg, 1996 - MIT)

• Either avatars or agents. Often 3d characters in games• Lifelike, realism of movement and expression

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Animated Agents

Synthetic Characters which collaborate to perform tasks such as learning, shopping, setting up meetings

Animated Pedagogical agents Personalized agents

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

(ii) Animated Pedagogical agentsLifelike autonomous characters that cohabit learning environments with students.

Agents can demonstrate complex tasks employ locomotion and gesture to focus

students’ attention on the most salient aspect of the task at hand

Convey emotional responses to the tutorial situation

Herman the bug flies into plants & explains things on-the-fly & gives advice to studentsSteve operates engines aboard US Navy ShipsMay improve learning (Johnson, Rickel and Lester 2000).

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Personalized agentsThe user delegates a range of tasks to personalized agents that can act on the user's behalf. The agent gradually learns how to better assist the user by:

observing and imitating the user receiving positive and negative feedback from the user receiving explicit instructions from the user asking other agents for advice.

The agents are competent: they become more helpful, as they accumulate knowledge about how the user handles certain situations. They can be trusted: the user is able to gradually and incrementally build up a model of the agent's competencies and limitations.

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Personal Digital Agents

CyberBuddy reads emails, tells you about the weather, when your stocks change…. (no AI)

http://thecyberbuddy.com/index.html

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

(iii) Emotional agents

Pre-defined personality and set of emotions that user can changeThese agents as yet can not be said to feel emotion but maybe one day….

The Woggles, Bates, 1994

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Conversation with Julia: A Chatterbot in a MUDSpace-Ace says, "So why won't you kiss me, Julia?" Julia says, "Sorry, I'm not into geeks, Space-Ace." Space-Ace says, "Julia, I'm not a geek" Julia says, "Then lose the pocket protector, Space-Ace." Space-Ace says, "Julia, I don't have a pocket protector" Julia says, "Congratulations." Space-Ace says, "So kiss me, Julia" Julia says, "I'd rather be overhauled by a Yugo mechanic, Space-Ace." Space-Ace says, "julia, kiss me" Julia says, "Why, did your sheep leave you?" Space-Ace says, "julia, kiss me" Julia says, "Take a long walk through an unlinked exit, Space-Ace (copyright © 1990 by Ashne)." Julia is offended by Lenny's suggestion. Julia winks at Lenny. Julia eyes Lenny carefully... Julia grins at Lenny. Julia nods to Lenny. [...]

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

(Embodied) Conversational agents

Rea, real-estate agent, showing useran apartment

Human-like body

Uses gesture, non-verbal communication (facialexpressions, winks) while talking

Sophisticated AI techniques used to enable this form of interactionShe synthesizes her responses--including speech and accompanying hand gestures--based on a grammar and lexicon and communicative context. 

Cassell, 2000, MIT

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Which is the most believable agent?

Believability refers to the extent to which users come to believe an agent’s intentions and personalityAppearance is important

Are simple cartoon-like characters or more realistic characters, resembling the human form more believable?

Perhaps surprisingly less realistic characters considered more believable

Behaviour is important How an agent moves, gestures and refers to objects on the

screen Exaggeration of facial expressions and gestures to show

underlying emotions (cf animation industry)

Mode of Interaction is important Full human language or artificial

Summary – more realistic is not always better

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Agents: Evidence +

Reeves and Naas (1996) found that computers that flatter and praise users in education software programs -> positive impact on them

“Your question makes an important & useful distinction. Great job!”

Students were more willing to continue with exercises with this kind of feedbackOther studies (Walker et al, Spoull et al in ID) found that people interact more with agents that text-only boxes and presented themselves more positively

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Agents: Evidence -

Deceptive, make people feel anxious, inferior or stupidPeople tend not to like screen characters that wave their fingers at the user & say: Now Chris, that’s not right. You can do better

than that.Try again.”Many prefer the more impersonal: “Incorrect. Try again.”

Studies have shown that personalized feedback is considered to be less honest and makes users feel less responsible for their actions (e.g. Quintanar, 1982)

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

DM v Agents

Shneiderman Anthropomorphism causes compromise in the design,

leading to issues of unpredictability and vagueness. He emphasizes the importance of clear,

comprehensible and predictable interfaces that support direct manipulation.

Maes Delegate boring and routine tasks to agents. Agents can be proactive whereas DM is reactive

Are they actually that different? (see Brennan in Laurel) Do you do better with both?

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

Exercicses

5. Explore a free (demo only) animated pedagogical agent http://knightlite.net/spell/. What do you think

6. Debate: Argue the case for Agents (read Maes and AI website

7. Debate: Prepare to argue the case for DM against agents (read Scheiderman, follow up on why people hate clippy)

8. Spend a week getting the news from a synthetic character; e.g. http://www.ananova.com/video/. Watch the readme videos as well.

People and Computers in the Workplace Shaaron Ainsworth

ReadingsPreece ID (Chapter 5)Lanier on Agents http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=208666.208684Laurel (interface agents) in Laurel The art of human-computer interaction (in GG and Jub) – a nice link with the metaphor aspects of last week.Brennan (in Laurel) in Laurel The art of human-computer interaction –is there such a difference between DM and agentsAAAI have a great collection of papers on agents – start from http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/agents.html. Pattie Maes articles are particularly recommendedOren (Guides) in Laurel The art of human-computer interactionAgents v DM (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/267505.267514) For the interestedTurkle, S. Life on the Screen