A Virtual Conversational Agent for Teens with Autism: Experimental Results and Design Lessons

We present the design of an online social skills development interface for teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The interface is intended to enable private conversation practice anywhere, anytime using a web-browser. Users converse informally with a virtual agent, receiving feedback on nonverbal cues in real-time, and summary feedback. The prototype was developed in consultation with an expert UX designer, two psychologists, and a pediatrician. Using the data from 47 individuals, feedback and dialogue generation were automated using a hidden Markov model and a schema-driven dialogue manager capable of handling multi-topic conversations. We conducted a study with nine high-functioning ASD teenagers. Through a thematic analysis of post-experiment interviews, identified several key design considerations, notably: 1) Users should be fully briefed at the outset about the purpose and limitations of the system, to avoid unrealistic expectations. 2) An interface should incorporate positive acknowledgment of behavior change. 3) Realistic appearance of a virtual agent and responsiveness are important in engaging users. 4) Conversation personalization, for instance in prompting laconic users for more input and reciprocal questions, would help the teenagers engage for longer terms and increase the system's utility

Editorial: Beyond embodied cognition: Intentionality, affordance, and environmental adaptation

The paper describes the contents of the contributions contained in the special topi

Women with infertility complying with and resisting polygyny : an explorative qualitative study in urban Gambia

Background. In many low-and middle-income countries women with infertility are often in polygynous marriages. From a human and women's rights perspective, the practice of polygyny is commonly understood as harmful. Studies indicate that polygyny aggravates negative life circumstances of women with infertility with respect to their health and social well-being. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how women with infertility experience polygyny and to understand their decision-making regarding these marriages.Methods. An explorative qualitative study was conducted among women with infertility in the urban communities of the West Coast region of The Gambia using in-depth interviews (30). Data analysis involved an emergent and partially inductive thematic framework and was carried out using NVivo 11.Results. With the exception of some women with infertility who described positive experiences within polygynous marriages, most women emphasised conflicts that exist within polygynous households and reported financial and emotional difficulties. Thematic analysis identified several strategies of women with infertility to cope with and resist polygynous marriages, including overcoming childlessness, addressing conflict, spending time outside the compound, looking for social support, kanyaleng kafoolu, living separately and initiating divorce. Moreover, the experiences and decision-making power of women with infertility when it comes to polygynous marriages was found to be closely related to their socio-demographic background.Conclusion.This work highlights how women with infertility in polygynous marriages are in a precarious situation in urban Gambia. Women utilize a mix of compliance, coping and resistance strategies to navigate the challenges of polygynous marriages in a structurally constraining context

Narrative Generation in Entertainment: Using Artificial Intelligence Planning

From the field of artificial intelligence (AI) there is a growing stream of technology capable of being embedded in software that will reshape the way we interact with our environment in our everyday lives. This ‘AI software’ is often used to tackle more mundane tasks that are otherwise dangerous or meticulous for a human to accomplish. One particular area, explored in this paper, is for AI software to assist in supporting the enjoyable aspects of the lives of humans. Entertainment is one of these aspects, and often includes storytelling in some form no matter what the type of media, including television, films, video games, etc. This paper aims to explore the ability of AI software to automate the story-creation and story-telling process. This is part of the field of Automatic Narrative Generator (ANG), which aims to produce intuitive interfaces to support people (without any previous programming experience) to use tools to generate stories, based on their ideas of the kind of characters, intentions, events and spaces they want to be in the story. The paper includes details of such AI software created by the author that can be downloaded and used by the reader for this purpose. Applications of this kind of technology include the automatic generation of story lines for ‘soap operas’

Surviving, and Indeed Thriving in Faculty Development: A Reflective Commentary on Values Informing Professional Practice

While a significant body of work on the practice of faculty development exists, research on faculty developers as professionals is limited, and few have explored the profession from the perspective of faculty developers themselves (Shaffer, 2011). Specifically, this reflective commentary begins to address the question of how best to prepare and support current and future faculty developers for their ambiguous and complex roles and their need to function within the changing environment of higher education institutions. Since embarking on a role in an Irish Higher Education Institution in 1999 as a Faculty Developer, it has been crucial to consider my values as an educator, and how they inform the multifaceted role. A personal and professional value system certainly requires considerable thought as it is necessary to understand what it is that the faculty developer wishes to evaluate in their work, why and for what purpose. The role of the professional body for faculty developers internationally is more important than ever in providing much needed support an networking opportunities. This critically reflective commentary is structured under the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) values and examples are given to illustrate each in action. Similar to the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education popular in the U.S., SEDA is the professional body for faculty developers in the UK and Ireland. When one is new to teaching in higher education, advice and support from a faculty developer (amongst others), can be invaluable. Equally, when one is a number of years down the teaching road, having a faculty developer within the institution can be a way to reach out to try something different. Therefore a key aspect of the faculty development role is to continue to motivate academics when it comes to continual development in teaching and learning; the ‘journey’ metaphor is overused today but it can be useful for the faculty developer to bear in mind that immediacy of results for oneself and others is not always viable or even appropriate. Within my role, it has been useful to continue to question the things that are either too familiar or too removed from my everyday concerns. My ‘performance’ as a faculty developer comes from deeply within myself and therefore the constructs used are based on a mixture of personal beliefs, professional knowledge, practice and social context. Figure 1 shows these values and main influences on my work

INSPIRED INTERVIEWING: LEVERAGING MINDFULNESS PRACTICE TO IMPROVE SECRET SERVICE INTERVIEW SKILLS IN PROTECTIVE INTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATIONS

The Secret Service conducts Protective Intelligence (PI) investigations as part of its integrated mission of investigating financial crimes and protecting certain elected federal government officials. An integral part of the PI investigation is the PI interview. Although Special Agents and Uniformed Division Officers receive PI interview training, they still struggle with four key components of the interview: rapport and relationship building, elicitation, deception detection, and decision-making. As a result, they may not conduct thorough PI interviews, thus negatively impacting the PI investigation. Faulty PI investigations may result in unwanted outcomes for Secret Service protective interests. These outcomes may include death or injury to protectees, Secret Service employees, or the public. A potential solution is the mPEAK mindfulness program that the Secret Service already uses to improve employee wellness. This thesis reviews literature on mindfulness training and its utility in performance enhancement to determine to what extent the Secret Service should leverage mPEAK to improve PI interviewing and to offer recommendations for the inclusion of mPEAK in the current PI training curriculum. It finds that elements of mindfulness—presence, nonjudgment, enhanced listening skills, and increased attention—can improve investigators’ PI interview skills. Finally, this thesis gives recommendations for a working group to adapt mPEAK for improved PI interviewing.Civilian, Department of Homeland SecurityApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Conversational Agents for Energy Awareness and Efficiency: A Survey

The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote energy efficiency is crucial to achieve the energy transition and sustainable development goals. The availability of tools that provide clear information on energy consumption plays a key role in this transition, enabling users to monitor, manage, and optimize their energy use. This process, commonly referred to as energy feedback or eco-feedback, involves delivering information regarding energy usage and potentially suggesting more sustainable practices. Within the range of available tools, conversational agents can represent a valuable channel to receive detailed information about energy consumption and tailored advice for improving energy efficiency. The aim of this article is thus to explore the application of conversational agents, focusing on eco-feedback, as these tools are primarily devised to foster user awareness of energy usage and enhance more participatory conservation strategies. To this end, we conducted a keyword-based search of major scientific article databases, applying strict criteria to select relevant studies. The results of the collection showed that there is a very diverse landscape with respect to this topic. The surveyed works exhibit a high versatility in feedback goals. Furthermore, while predominantly applied domestically, they also show potential in commercial and industrial settings. Implementation choices also vary to a great extent, while evaluation practices lack a systematic approach and highlight the need for greater consistency. In light of these remarks, we also outline possible future extensions of this type of application, exploring in particular the emerging challenges associated with the increased use of renewable sources and the rise of local decentralized energy communities

Customer interactions with AI: How can Marley Spoon optimize its chatbot performance to improve the touchpoint experience along the customer journey?

The purpose of this in-company project is to identify chatbot optimization recommendations for Marley Spoon to improve the touchpoint experience along the customer journey. Customer interactions with Artificial Intelligence became a relevant part of communication channels within business processes and are already applied in many marketing strategies. Grace to its machine learning capability, chatbots can combine natural language processing and natural language understanding in order to offer an automated customer experience. Nowadays, AI-chatbots are not only able to operate on a mechanical and thinking level, but are also developing on a feeling level. Hence, chatbots can also understand human emotions and adapt empathically to different moods and circumstances. In this way, a well implemented chatbot should not only be used as a simple FAQ machine, but also be implemented for different marketing purposes such as customer attraction and retention. The results of this research are based on a profound literature review with recent articles of well-respected researchers in this field. Moreover, a primary research was conducted in form of in-depth interviews with different specialist of the company and a customer satisfaction survey collected by the chatbot platform. Deriving from the findings of this research, there are three recommendations provided to the company, which should be implemented to improve the touchpoint experience. Those three implementations should be a be a new chatbot interface with more customer engagement, integrating the chatbot to different customer journey stages and setting up a chatbot superteam with specified scope and responsibilities.O objetivo deste projeto em empresa é identificar recomendações de otimização de chatbot para Marley Spoon, de modo a melhorar a experiência touchpoint ao longo da jornada do cliente. As interações dos clientes com a Inteligência Artificial tornaram-se uma parte crucial dos canais de comunicação integradas nos processos de negócios, sendo que já estão a ser aplicadas em muitas estratégias de marketing. Devido à capacidade de aprendizagem, os chatbots podem combinar processamento de linguagem natural com compreensão de linguagem natural, de maneira a oferecer uma experiência automatizada ao cliente. Nos dias de hoje, os AI-chatbots não só são capazes de operar num nível mecânico e de pensamento, mas também estão desenvolvidos a nível de sentimento. Os chatbots podem inclusivamente entender as emoções humanas e adaptar-se efetivamente diferentes estados de espírito e circunstâncias. Desta forma, um chatbot eficiente não deve ser usado apenas como uma simples máquina de resposta a perguntas frequentes, mas também deve ser utilizado para diferentes fins de marketing, como a atração e retenção de clientes. Os resultados da pesquisa foram retirados da análise de conceitos teóricos da literatura científica, focada em artigos recentes de investigadores referenciados nessa área. A pesquisa primária foi realizada em forma de entrevistas com diferentes especialistas da empresa e, também, através de uma pesquisa de satisfação de cliente na plataforma chatbot. Com base nos resultados desta pesquisa, há três recomendações facultadas à empresa, que devem ser implementadas para melhorar a experiência touchpoint. Uma nova interface chatbot com mais comprometimento com o cliente, integrando o chatbot em diferentes estágios da jornada do cliente e configurando uma superteam chatbot com intuito e responsabilidades especificados