1,736 research outputs found
Seamlessly Unifying Attributes and Items: Conversational Recommendation for Cold-Start Users
Static recommendation methods like collaborative filtering suffer from the
inherent limitation of performing real-time personalization for cold-start
users. Online recommendation, e.g., multi-armed bandit approach, addresses this
limitation by interactively exploring user preference online and pursuing the
exploration-exploitation (EE) trade-off. However, existing bandit-based methods
model recommendation actions homogeneously. Specifically, they only consider
the items as the arms, being incapable of handling the item attributes, which
naturally provide interpretable information of user's current demands and can
effectively filter out undesired items. In this work, we consider the
conversational recommendation for cold-start users, where a system can both ask
the attributes from and recommend items to a user interactively. This important
scenario was studied in a recent work. However, it employs a hand-crafted
function to decide when to ask attributes or make recommendations. Such
separate modeling of attributes and items makes the effectiveness of the system
highly rely on the choice of the hand-crafted function, thus introducing
fragility to the system. To address this limitation, we seamlessly unify
attributes and items in the same arm space and achieve their EE trade-offs
automatically using the framework of Thompson Sampling. Our Conversational
Thompson Sampling (ConTS) model holistically solves all questions in
conversational recommendation by choosing the arm with the maximal reward to
play. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets show that ConTS
outperforms the state-of-the-art methods Conversational UCB (ConUCB) and
Estimation-Action-Reflection model in both metrics of success rate and average
number of conversation turns.Comment: TOIS 202
ConstitutionMaker: Interactively Critiquing Large Language Models by Converting Feedback into Principles
Large language model (LLM) prompting is a promising new approach for users to
create and customize their own chatbots. However, current methods for steering
a chatbot's outputs, such as prompt engineering and fine-tuning, do not support
users in converting their natural feedback on the model's outputs to changes in
the prompt or model. In this work, we explore how to enable users to
interactively refine model outputs through their feedback, by helping them
convert their feedback into a set of principles (i.e. a constitution) that
dictate the model's behavior. From a formative study, we (1) found that users
needed support converting their feedback into principles for the chatbot and
(2) classified the different principle types desired by users. Inspired by
these findings, we developed ConstitutionMaker, an interactive tool for
converting user feedback into principles, to steer LLM-based chatbots. With
ConstitutionMaker, users can provide either positive or negative feedback in
natural language, select auto-generated feedback, or rewrite the chatbot's
response; each mode of feedback automatically generates a principle that is
inserted into the chatbot's prompt. In a user study with 14 participants, we
compare ConstitutionMaker to an ablated version, where users write their own
principles. With ConstitutionMaker, participants felt that their principles
could better guide the chatbot, that they could more easily convert their
feedback into principles, and that they could write principles more
efficiently, with less mental demand. ConstitutionMaker helped users identify
ways to improve the chatbot, formulate their intuitive responses to the model
into feedback, and convert this feedback into specific and clear principles.
Together, these findings inform future tools that support the interactive
critiquing of LLM outputs
Motivations, Classification and Model Trial of Conversational Agents for Insurance Companies
Advances in artificial intelligence have renewed interest in conversational
agents. So-called chatbots have reached maturity for industrial applications.
German insurance companies are interested in improving their customer service
and digitizing their business processes. In this work we investigate the
potential use of conversational agents in insurance companies by determining
which classes of agents are of interest to insurance companies, finding
relevant use cases and requirements, and developing a prototype for an
exemplary insurance scenario. Based on this approach, we derive key findings
for conversational agent implementation in insurance companies.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure, accepted for presentation at The International
Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence 2019 (ICAART 2019
Chatbot-Based Natural Language Interfaces for Data Visualisation: A Scoping Review
Rapid growth in the generation of data from various sources has made data visualisation a valuable tool for analysing data. However, visual analysis can be a challenging task, not only due to intricate dashboards but also when dealing with complex and multidimensional data. In this context, advances in Natural Language Processing technologies have led to the development of Visualisation-oriented Natural Language Interfaces (V-NLIs). In this paper, we carry out a scoping review that analyses synergies between the fields of Data Visualisation and Natural Language Interaction. Specifically, we focus on chatbot-based V-NLI approaches and explore and discuss three research questions. The first two research questions focus on studying how chatbot-based V-NLIs contribute to interactions with the Data and Visual Spaces of the visualisation pipeline, while the third seeks to know how chatbot-based V-NLIs enhance users' interaction with visualisations. Our findings show that the works in the literature put a strong focus on exploring tabular data with basic visualisations, with visual mapping primarily reliant on fixed layouts. Moreover, V-NLIs provide users with restricted guidance strategies, and few of them support high-level and follow-up queries. We identify challenges and possible research opportunities for the V-NLI community such as supporting high-level queries with complex data, integrating V-NLIs with more advanced systems such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), particularly for advanced visualisations, expanding guidance strategies beyond current limitations, adopting intelligent visual mapping techniques, and incorporating more sophisticated interaction methods
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Dialogue Generation
Recent neural models of dialogue generation offer great promise for
generating responses for conversational agents, but tend to be shortsighted,
predicting utterances one at a time while ignoring their influence on future
outcomes. Modeling the future direction of a dialogue is crucial to generating
coherent, interesting dialogues, a need which led traditional NLP models of
dialogue to draw on reinforcement learning. In this paper, we show how to
integrate these goals, applying deep reinforcement learning to model future
reward in chatbot dialogue. The model simulates dialogues between two virtual
agents, using policy gradient methods to reward sequences that display three
useful conversational properties: informativity (non-repetitive turns),
coherence, and ease of answering (related to forward-looking function). We
evaluate our model on diversity, length as well as with human judges, showing
that the proposed algorithm generates more interactive responses and manages to
foster a more sustained conversation in dialogue simulation. This work marks a
first step towards learning a neural conversational model based on the
long-term success of dialogues
From Clicks to Conversations: The Evolution of Chatbot Marketing
This research investigates the dynamics of chatbot marketing within PT Sinar Sosro, focusing on the interplay between user experience, marketing strategy evolution, and the effectiveness of chatbot conversations. Through a quantitative approach utilizing Smart PLS analysis, data was gathered from a sample of 100 consumers. The findings reveal significant direct effects of both user experience and marketing strategy evolution on chatbot conversations, emphasizing their pivotal roles in driving meaningful engagements. Moreover, indirect effects analysis highlights the mediating role of user experience in the relationship between marketing strategy evolution / Number of Clicks and chatbot conversations. These insights underscore the importance of optimizing user-centric approaches and aligning marketing strategies with user preferences to foster positive experiences, enhance chatbot effectiveness, and achieve marketing objectives effectively within PT Sinar Sosro's digital ecosystem.
 
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