Korbut2023

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Korbut2023
BibType ARTICLE
Key Korbut2023
Author(s) Andrei Korbut
Title How Conversational are “Conversational Agents”? Evidence from the Study of Users’ Interaction with a Service Telephone Chatbot
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Ethnomethodology, Conversation analysis, Conversational agents, Chatbot, Call center, AI Reference List
Publisher
Year 2023
Language English
City
Month
Journal Social Interaction: Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality
Volume 6
Number 1
Pages
URL Link
DOI 10.7146/si.v6i1.137249
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
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Edition
Series
Howpublished
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Abstract

The paper considers whether is it possible to view interactions with so-called conversational agents (chatbots, voice assistants, etc.) as a form of conversation. It is argued here that such conversational agents are conversational in a proper sense. To justify this conclusion, the analysis of the beginnings of 100 calls to a Russian municipal call center, processed by a chatbot, is conducted. The revealed features of the inquiry formulations, silences, and overlaps at the beginning of the calls show that users deal with the chatbot as a conversational partner and not as a voice user interface. It is proposed that to call an interaction a “conversation,” it is enough that at least one co-participant (the weak participation requirement) is able to understand all the turns in the interaction (the strong analyzability requirement) as part of the ongoing conversation.

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