"Do Users Need Human-like Conversational Agents?" - Exploring Conversational System Design Using Framework of Human Needs.
Souvick Ghosh, Satanu Ghosh · San Jose State University Scholar Works (San Jose State University) · 2021
The fascinating story of human evolution can be attributed to our ability to speak, write, and communicate complex thoughts. When researchers envision a perfect, artificially intelligent conversational system, they want the system to be human-like. In other words, the system should converse with the same intellect and cognition as humans. Now, the question which we need to ask is if we need a human-like conversational system? Before we engage in the complex endeavor of implementing human-like characteristics, we should debate if the pursuit of such a system is logical and ethical. We analyze some of the system-level characteristics and discuss their merits and potential of harm. We review some of the latest work on conversational systems to understand how design features are evolving for Conversational Agents. Additionally, we look into the framework of human needs to assess how the system should assign relative importance to user requests, and prioritize user tasks. We draw on the peer work in human-computer interaction, sentiment analysis, and human psychology to provide insights into how future conversational agents should be designed for better user satisfaction.