Help! Is my chatbot falling into the uncanny valley? An empirical study of user experience in human-chatbot interaction

Advances in artificial intelligence strengthen chatbots’ ability to resemble human conversational agents. For some application areas, it may be tempting not to be transparent regarding a conversational agent’s nature as chatbot or human. However, the uncanny valley theory suggests that such lack in...

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Veröffentlicht in:Human technology Jg. 15; H. 1; S. 30 - 54
Hauptverfasser: Skjuve, Marita, Haugstveit, Ida Maria, Følstad, Asbjørn, Brandtzaeg, Petter Bae
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Jyväskylä Centre of Sociological Research (NGO) 01.02.2019
Centre of Sociological Research, Szczecin, Poland
Schlagworte:
Agents (artificial intelligence)
chatbot
Chatbots
Conversational artificial intelligence
Empirical analysis
human–chatbot interaction
Qualitative analysis
uncanny valley
User experience
ISSN:1795-6889, 1795-6889
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:Advances in artificial intelligence strengthen chatbots’ ability to resemble human conversational agents. For some application areas, it may be tempting not to be transparent regarding a conversational agent’s nature as chatbot or human. However, the uncanny valley theory suggests that such lack in transparency may cause uneasy feelings in the user. In this study, we combined quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate this issue. First, we used a 2 x 2 experimental research design (n = 28) to investigate effects of lack in transparency on the perceived pleasantness of the conversation in addition to perceived human likeness and affinity for the conversational agent. Second, we conducted an exploratory analysis of qualitative participant reports on these conversations. We did not find that a lack in transparency negatively affected user experience, but we identified three factors important to participants’ assessments. The findings are of theoretical and practical significance and motivate future research.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1795-6889
1795-6889
DOI:10.17011/ht/urn.201902201607