Date: Tue 26-07-2005 02:05 PM
Review Number: 38526
Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships
Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships Bickmore T., Picard R. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 12(2): 293-327, 2005. Type: Article
The authors investigate the meaning of “human-computer relationship” and present techniques for “constructing, maintaining, and evaluating such relationships.” Their primary conclusion is that they “have motivated the development of relational agents as a new field of research.”
Two particular relational benefits motivate their research: trust and task outcomes (like improved learning) known to be associated with relationship quality. The authors are concerned with evaluating whether agents “establish and maintain long-term social-emotional relationships with their users.” Their experiment with 101 users interacted daily with an exercise adoption system for a month. Compared to an equivalent task-oriented agent the computer based relational agent was trusted
more.
Placing agents on mobile devices could provide a potent combination of relationship building (an ever-present “buddy”) and for behavior change (providing timely and appropriate interventions).
Work should be done regarding the nature of the buddy. Examples of conversational systems such as R2D2 in StarWars and Microsoft Office Assistant (“Clippit”) engendered mixed results: the former was cute and helpful, the latter intrusive and grating. And, there are political and ethical considerations in designing a buddy. Should the buddy be a thing or a neutered object as the two examples above, or perhaps a male, or as in the authors study a female? And, finally as the authors note, in these proactive buddy scenarios, which are monitoring us, raise issues
of privacy and security: with whom do you let it share which pieces of relational or personal information, and how does it earn your trust to do so?
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