EAGER: AI-DCL: Addressing sociotechnical challenges of conversational agents and interventions in the context of elderly care

研究人员将开发和评估一种人工智能对话代理，该代理将帮助认知能力下降的老年人。将使用对话模式开发该代理，该模式旨在解决用户的理解和接受问题；他们的职能是协助完成与日历和活动有关的任务。在实验室开发原型试剂之后，将评估原型在家中的使用情况。非常有必要开发人工智能技术来支持那些就地老龄化的人，这个项目有创新的计划来做到这一点。这些影响将通过与相关利益攸关方团体接触来实现，其中包括对话代理的设计者和开发者、帮助老年人的卫生保健专业人员以及老年人本身。更广泛地说，如果该项目成功地帮助老年人习惯于使用对话代理来帮助他们完成与日历相关的任务，那么这种成功可能会帮助他们更习惯于使用人工智能代理来帮助进行其他与身心健康相关的活动；简而言之，该项目的结果可能有助于解决随着时间的推移不断上涨的医疗成本。该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目使用以人为中心的设计方法来整合生理和对话数据，以评估用户的身体、情感和认知状态。然后，这一评估将被考虑到基于对话的语音激活系统如何响应用户。研究小组将为对话助手开发一个基于话轮的对话框架。该框架将围绕处理日历和活动，如社交和休闲活动，或与健康相关的老年人约会。然后，它将被用来开发一个支持日常活动安排的原型人工智能系统。该团队还将开发个性化的用户模型，在考虑如何最好地与老年用户互动时，将认知和身体能力考虑在内。他们还将研究老年人或其他人更喜欢与对话代理互动的方式的长期变化，因为他们对它变得更加熟悉。该项目的成果将有助于改善因疾病或高龄而丧失能力的人的健康、福祉和独立性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The investigators will develop and assess an AI Conversational Agent that will assist elderly persons with cognitive decline. The agent will be developed using a dialogic model which is intended to address user issues of comprehension and acceptance; they will function to assist with calendar and event-related tasks. Laboratory development of prototype agents will be followed by assessment of in-home use of the prototypes. There is a very substantial need to develop AI technologies to support those ageing in place, and this project has innovative plans for doing so. These impacts will be achieved by engaging with pertinent stakeholder groups including designers and developers of conversational agents, health care professionals who assist the elderly, and the elderly themselves. More broadly, if the project succeeds in helping the elderly become comfortable with using conversational agents to assist with calendar related tasks, that success may help them to become more comfortable with using AI agents to assist with other activities associated with physical and mental health; in short, the results of this project may serve to address rising health care costs over time.This award supports a research project that uses a human-centered design approach to integrate physiological and conversational data to assess the physical, emotional, and cognitive status of the user. That assessment will then be factored into how a conversation-based voice-activated system responds to the user. The research team will develop a turn-based dialog framework for a conversational assistant. The framework will center around handling calendars and activities, such as social and leisure activities, or health-related appointments for elderly people. It will then be used to develop a prototype AI system that supports daily activity scheduling. The team will also develop personalized user models that factor in cognitive and physical ability when considering how best to interact with elderly users. They will also examine longer-term changes in how older adults or others prefer to interact with a conversational agent, as they gain more familiarity with it. The results of this project will contribute to improving the health, wellbeing, and independence of people who have reduced capacity due to illness or advanced age, or simply who live alone.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.