about
Anthropomorphism in Dialogue Systems (arxiv.org)
2 points by LukeEF on May 27, 2023 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: Chatbots often seem human because of design and language choices, and users then treat them like people. This review gathers the linguistic cues that trigger that illusion and the harms, like gender stereotypes, noting past work is scattered and urging more careful design.

Abstract · Mirages: On Anthropomorphism in Dialogue Systems

Automated dialogue or conversational systems are anthropomorphised by developers and personified by users. While a degree of anthropomorphism may be inevitable due to the choice of medium, conscious and unconscious design choices can guide users to personify such systems to varying degrees. Encouraging users to relate to automated systems as if they were human can lead to high risk scenarios caused by over-reliance on their outputs. As a result, natural language processing researchers have investigated the factors that induce personification and develop resources to mitigate such effects. However, these efforts are fragmented, and many aspects of anthropomorphism have yet to be explored. In this paper, we discuss the linguistic factors that contribute to the anthropomorphism of dialogue systems and the harms that can arise, including reinforcing gender stereotypes and notions of acceptable language. We recommend that future efforts towards developing dialogue systems take particular care in their design, development, release, and description; and attend to the many linguistic cues that can elicit personification by users.

Gavin Abercrombie, Amanda Cercas Curry, Tanvi Dinkar, Verena Rieser, Zeerak Talat
arXiv:2305.09800 · cs.CL · submitted May 16, 2023 · updated Oct 23, 2023
abstract · pdf · html · Accepted for publication at EMNLP. See ACL Anthology for published version

add comment on HN
Also discussed: May 2023 (41 points, 22 comments)