"Sorry, but I Can Answer your Question, too": Methods of Reaching Conversational Misunderstanding between Human and Robot

 
26.02.2018
 
Center for Science and Technology Studies (STS Center)

On February 28th, as part of the Regular seminar of the STS Center, Andrei Korbut (HSE Moscow) will give a talk entitled "Sorry, but I Can Answer your Question, too": Methods of Reaching Conversational Misunderstanding between Human and Robot.

As robots become part of our daily lives, people tend to use the same models of communication as they use with other people. Sometimes, though, they develop new forms of interaction with robots, imagining a specific position that a robot might occupy in conversation. This assumption is based on their experience and the particular character of the interaction. The robot as well does use certain method of organization of the conversation, which people try to reconstruct. Both these processes can lead to misunderstanding between the robot and the human. 

In this seminar, Andrei Korbut will discuss the conditions for misunderstanding to appear and the means of overcoming it used both by humans and robots. The speaker will use the recordings of phone conversations between subscribers and robot operators at one of the Russian call centers. We will discuss how misunderstanding between humans and robots is expressed in the conversation and how it is connected with the particular features of the conversation, such as the order of remarks, their structure and interactional characteristics (pauses, overlapping, intonations).

Room 218, 1 Shpalernaya St.

Photo Credit: jypsygen Flickr cc