The effect of conversational agent skill on user behavior during deception

Conversational agents (CAs) are an integral component of many personal and business interactions. Many recent advancements in CA technology have attempted to make these interactions more natural and human-like. However, it is currently unclear how human-like traits in a CA impact the way users respond to questions from the CA. In some applications where CAs may be used, detecting deception is important. Design elements that make CA interactions more human-like may induce undesired strategic behaviors from human deceivers to mask their deception. To better understand this interaction, this research investigates the effect of conversational skill—that is, the ability of the CA to mimic human conversation—from CAs on behavioral indicators of deception. Our results show that cues of deception vary depending on CA conversational skill, and that increased conversational skill leads to users engaging in strategic behaviors that are detrimental to deception detection. This finding suggests that for applications in which it is desirable to detect when individuals are lying, the pursuit of more human-like interactions may be counter-productive

Voice-Based Agents as Personified Things: Assimilation and Accommodation as Equilibration of Doubt

We aim to investigate the nature of doubt regarding voice-based agents by referring to Piaget’s ontological object–subject classification “thing” and “person,” its associated equilibration processes, and influential factors of the situation, the user, and the agent. In two online surveys, we asked 853 and 435 participants, ranging from 17 to 65 years of age, to assess Alexa and the Google Assistant. We discovered that only some people viewed voice-based agents as mere things, whereas the majority classified them into personified things. However, their classification is fragile and depends basically on the imputation of subject-like attributes of agency and mind to the voice-based agents, increased by a dyadic using situation, previous regular interactions, a younger age, and an introverted personality of the user. We discuss these results in a broader context

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 2

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 2

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 1

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 1

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume 5. Gender and Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume

From Social Simulation to Integrative System Design

As the recent financial crisis showed, today there is a strong need to gain "ecological perspective" of all relevant interactions in socio-economic-techno-environmental systems. For this, we suggested to set-up a network of Centers for integrative systems design, which shall be able to run all potentially relevant scenarios, identify causality chains, explore feedback and cascading effects for a number of model variants, and determine the reliability of their implications (given the validity of the underlying models). They will be able to detect possible negative side effect of policy decisions, before they occur. The Centers belonging to this network of Integrative Systems Design Centers would be focused on a particular field, but they would be part of an attempt to eventually cover all relevant areas of society and economy and integrate them within a "Living Earth Simulator". The results of all research activities of such Centers would be turned into informative input for political Decision Arenas. For example, Crisis Observatories (for financial instabilities, shortages of resources, environmental change, conflict, spreading of diseases, etc.) would be connected with such Decision Arenas for the purpose of visualization, in order to make complex interdependencies understandable to scientists, decision-makers, and the general public.Comment: 34 pages, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

Second Life : representation and remediation of social space

Ao longo da última década os jogos online e as plataformas sociais têm-se tornado cada vez mais populares, tendo vindo a contribuir para o desenvolvimento da internet. Os jogos online multiplayer têm conquistado cada vez mais utilizadores. Estes têm como locus a realidade virtual e como objetivo a recriação de um novo mundo. Um exemplo deste tipo de jogos é o Second Life, um jogo social que conta com um elevado número de utilizadores – cerca de 31 milhões de utilizadores registados. Esta plataforma foi desenvolvida pela Linden Lab e reúne as características de um mundo virtual: é um cenário digital tridimensional, no qual utilizadores de todo o mundo, representados por avatares, interagem em tempo real formando diversos tipos de redes sociais. Uma das suas características distintivas é o facto de 99% do conteúdo existente dentro do espaço virtual ter sido desenvolvido pelos utilizadores. Os jogadores, denominados residentes, estão a contribuir não só na construção do espaço, mas também para o desenvolvimento social deste mundo virtual. Para além disto, existem mais quatro características que tornam o Second Life um objeto de estudo interessante: todos os avatares são controlados por seres humanos em tempo real; o reconhecimento de direitos de propriedade intelectual; a existência de uma micro-moeda – o Linden Dollar; e o facto de todos os jogadores terem acesso a ferramentas básicas de construção, e à linguagem de programação desenvolvida pela Linden Lab, a Linden Scripting Language, essenciais para criar objetos. O Second Life é um espaço colaborativo e participativo que, apesar de ser um jogo, oferece aos seus utilizadores uma experiência muito diferente da vivida nos videojogos tradicionais. Por ser um jogo do tipo caixa de areia os jogadores podem estabelecer uma relação diferente com esta plataforma, pois podem contribuir para as diversas dimensões da vida dentro do jogo. Devido às suas características, este mundo virtual tem despertado o interesse de investigadores de diferentes áreas que têm procurado perceber o seu impacto para a interação social, educação, economia, lei, e indústrias criativas. No entanto, tendo em conta que o ‘espaço’ é um elemento fulcral na investigação em Ciências Humanas e uma das áreas priveligiadas pela European Science Foundation para a investigação em Ciências Sociais e Humanas, há, ainda, a necessidade de perceber como é que este espaço digital está a ser desenvolvido, e que narrativas culturais o estão a moldar. Uma vez que o Second Life reflete a importância dos mundos virtuais para a interação online, torna-se fundamental compreender que impacto a virtualização das relações sociais pode ter para a interação interpessoal e para o desenvolvimento de um novo tipo de ‘comunidades imaginadas’. A presente investigação centra-se no Second Life e procura perceber de que forma poderá este novo espaço de interação estar a contribuir para o aparecimento de uma nova dimensão social. Uma dimensão resultante das possibilidades oferecidas por uma plataforma tecnológica apenas disponível através da internet, combinadas com o potencial criativo dos seus utilizadores. Com o intuito de contribuir para um melhor entendimento do potencial sociocultural deste mundo virtual, este estudo tem como base uma investigação empírica desenvolvida a partir de uma metodologia qualitativa específica para o estudo de comunidades online, a netnografia. Os métodos de recolha de dados adotados são: observação participante, auto-netnografia, entrevista e análise de conteúdo dos perfis dos utilizadores entrevistados. Os dados são analisados seguindo uma abordagem indutiva. A principal hipótese deste estudo centra-se na premissa que se o Second Life é um mundo virtual que está a ser coproduzido pela Linden Lab e pelos utilizadores, é provável que o envolvimento dos residentes com a realidade virtual resulte na criação de um sistema de representação re-mediado. Partindo desta hipótese, os objetivos principais desta investigação são confirmar se de facto os mundos virtuais estão a ser usados para representar e re-mediar o espaço social, e perceber que efeito isto tem nos jogadores. Uma das principais conclusões retiradas prende-se com o facto de os utilizadores estarem a tirar partido deste mundo virtual para renegociarem os modelos socioculturais que informam as suas ‘primeiras vidas’. Após a análise da relação que os utilizadores estabelecem com o espaço virtual, com os seus próprios avatares e entre si, concluiu-se que são três as principais narrativas culturais que estão a resultar das experiências vividas pelos residentes deste mundo virtual. As primeiras intrinsecamente relacionadas com a organização geográfica da vida humana – narrativas de espaço; as segundas, com a necessidade de nos compreendermos a nós mesmos, narrativas identitárias; e as terceiras, com o facto de os seres humanos serem na sua essência seres sociais, narrativas resultantes da interação social com outros residentes. A ‘re-mediação’ de narrativas culturais dentro de um ambiente online, anónimo e flexível evidencia a necessidade que os seres humanos têm de reconhecer os espaços sociais que frequentam, de modo a envolverem-se e atribuírem significado às experiências digitais vividas.Over the past decade online games and social platforms became very popular and contributed to the internet development. The massive multiplayer online games have conquered a high number of users. The locus of these games is virtual reality, and the main goal is the recreation of a new world. Second Life is one of these games, a tridimensional social platform which counts with a high number of users – around 31 million registered users. It was developed by Linden Lab and it assembles the main characteristics of a virtual worlds: it is a tridimensional digital setting where users from all over the world represented by avatars interact in real time, and develop diversified social networks. One of its main characteristics is the prevalence of prodused content – 99 per cent of the content existing in-world was created by residents. Players, designated residents, are not only contributing to the space construction, but also to the social development of this virtual world. Apart from this, there are four more characteristics that make this multiuser environment interesting as an object of study: all the avatars existent in-world are playing characters controlled by human beings in real time; the recognition of intellectual property rights; the existence of a micro-currency – the Linden Dollar; and all the players have access to simple building tools, and to the Linden Scripting Language, which are essential to create objects. Second Life is a collaborative and participative space that, despite being a game, offers its users a very different experience from that lived within traditional video games. Because it is a sandbox game players are able to establish a different kind of relationship with the platform, once they can contribute to the different dimensions of the life in-world. Due to its intrinsic characteristics, this virtual world has caught the attention of researchers from several areas that showed interest in understanding the impact this virtual world may have in social interaction, education, economy, law and creative industries. Notwithstanding, considering that ‘space’ is a key element in the Humanities, and one of the privileged areas by the European Science Foundation for the research in Social Sciences and Humanities, it is necessary to better understand how this digital space is being developed, and which cultural narratives are shaping it. Since Second Life reflects the relevance of virtual worlds to online interaction, it is essential to comprehend the impact that the ‘virtualization’ of social relationships may have for interpersonal interaction, and for the emergence of a new type of ‘imagined communities’. The present research is centered on Second Life and looks forward to understand how this new interaction space could be contributing to the emergence of a new social dimension. A dimension resulting from the possibilities offered by a technology platform only available through the internet, combined with the creative potential of its users. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the sociocultural potential of this virtual world, this study is grounded on an empirical research based on a specific qualitative methodology for studying online communities, the netnography. The methods adopted for data collection are: participant observation, auto-netnography, interview, and content analysis of the interviewees’ profiles. The data collected is analyzed through an inductive approach. The main hypothesis framing this research is the premise that if Second Life is a virtual world that is being prodused by its residents, it is probable that users’ involvement with the virtual reality would result in the creation of a remediated system of representation. Based on this hypothesis, the main goals then are to confirm if virtual worlds are indeed representing and remediating social space, and to understand the effect this has on players. One of the main conclusions reached is that the users are taking advantage of the affordances of this virtual world to renegotiate the sociocultural models that frame their first lives. Through the analysis of the relationship users are establishing with the virtual space, with their own avatars, and with each other, it is concluded that there are three main cultural narratives emerging from the in-world experience lived by the residents. The first intrinsically related with the geographical organization of human life – spatial narratives; the second, with the need to make sense of oneself – narratives of identity; and the third, with the fact that humans are social beings in essence – social interaction narratives resulting from the interaction with other residents. The remediation of cultural narratives into an online, anonymous, and flexible environment evinces the need humans have for recognizable social spaces in order to be able to get involved and attribute meaning to the lived digital experiences

Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology

The goal of this article is to present a first list of ethical concerns that may arise from research and personal use of virtual reality (VR) and related technology, and to offer concrete recommendations for minimizing those risks. Many of the recommendations call for focused research initiatives. In the first part of the article, we discuss the relevant evidence from psychology that motivates our concerns. In Section “Plasticity in the Human Mind,” we cover some of the main results suggesting that one’s environment can influence one’s psychological states, as well as recent work on inducing illusions of embodiment. Then, in Section “Illusions of Embodiment and Their Lasting Effect,” we go on to discuss recent evidence indicating that immersion in VR can have psychological effects that last after leaving the virtual environment. In the second part of the article, we turn to the risks and recommendations. We begin, in Section “The Research Ethics of VR,” with the research ethics of VR, covering six main topics: the limits of experimental environments, informed consent, clinical risks, dual-use, online research, and a general point about the limitations of a code of conduct for research. Then, in Section “Risks for Individuals and Society,” we turn to the risks of VR for the general public, covering four main topics: long-term immersion, neglect of the social and physical environment, risky content, and privacy. We offer concrete recommendations for each of these 10 topics, summarized in Table 1

Cyber-Narrative in Opera: Three Case Studies

This dissertation looks at three newly composed operas that feature what I call cyber-narratives: a work in which the story itself is inextricably linked with digital technologies, such that the characters utilize, interact with, or are affected by digital technologies to such a pervasive extent that the impact of said technologies is thematized within the work. Through an analysis of chat rooms and real-time text communication in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (2011), artificial intelligence in Søren Nils Eichberg’s Glare (2014), and mind uploading and digital immortality in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers (2010), a nexus of ideologies surrounding voice, the body, gender, digital anthropology, and cyber-culture are revealed. I consider the interpretive possibilities that emerge when analyzing voice and musical elements in conjunction with cultural references within the libretti, visual design choices in the productions, and directorial decisions in the evolution of each work. I theorize the expressive power of the operatic medium in dramatizing and personifying new forms of technology, while simultaneously exposing how these technologically oriented narratives reinforce and rely upon operatic tropes of the past. Recurring themes of misogyny and objectification of women across all three works are addressed, as is the framing of digital technology as a mechanism of dehumanization. This analysis also focuses on the unique sung and embodied aspect of opera, and how the human voice shapes concepts of identity, agency, and individuality in the digital age. All three case studies demonstrate how opera gives the cyber-narrative every possible mode of expression to explore the complexities and anxieties of human-machine relationships in the digital era, as all three operas question how the thematized technologies may come to re-define our perception and experience of humanity itself