BEA - Building Engaging Argumentation

对于人类来说，解决不同观点或形成观点的自然方式是通过对话，即通过交换论点和知识。另一方面，现在几乎每个话题的大量意见和信息都可以直接在网上获得。然而，对这些多个来源的筛选和评估可能是一项耗时且要求很高的任务。过滤算法旨在通过考虑先前的用户请求来减少这一工作量，以服务于用户的兴趣。因此，人们倾向于关注重复或强化已经确立的或方便的观点的有偏见的来源子集(所谓的过滤泡沫)。为了避免这种(通常是无意识的)智力隔离过程，我们在这里提出了一种方法，以一种自然和直观的方式探索大量不同的信息--通过对话。为此，我们提出了一个虚拟代理，它与人类用户进行深思熟虑的对话，以支持公平和公正的意见建立过程。与说服性系统不同，设想的代理没有特定于主题的议程，而是旨在提供多样化和具有代表性的概述-嵌入与用户的对话中。拟议的系统将扩展在SPP优先计划比率第一阶段期间EVA项目范围内研究和开发的技术。在EVA项目中，用户扮演(被动)听众的角色，而为第二阶段设想的系统将允许用户通过自然语言界面积极参与论证过程。因此，系统将能够对用户的话语做出反应，例如意见、请求和问题，并就讨论的主题提供个性化的对话。这将得到通过代理人访问最近开发的论点搜索引擎而对所讨论的主题的正反两方面的透明呈现的支持，从而有助于解释和更深入的理解。

For humans, a natural way of resolving different points of view or forming an opinion is through conversation, i.e., through the exchange of arguments and knowledge. On the other hand, numerous opinions and information on almost every topic are nowadays also directly available online. However, the screening and evaluation of these multiple sources can be a time-consuming and demanding task. Filter algorithms aim to reduce this effort by taking previous user requests into account to serve the users’ interest. As a result, people tend to focus on a biased subset of sources that repeat or strengthen an already established or convenient opinion (so-called filter bubbles). In order to avoid this (often unconscious) process of intellectual isolation, we herein propose an approach to explore a vast amount of different information in a natural and intuitive way – through a conversation. To this end, we propose a virtual agent that engages in a deliberative dialogue with a human user in order to support a fair and unbiased opinion building process. In contrast to persuasive systems, the envisioned agent has no topic-specific agenda, but instead aims for providing a diverse and representative overview - embedded in a conversation with the user.The proposed system will extend technologies investigated and developed in the scope of the EVA project during Phase I of the SPP Priority Program RATIO. Whereas in the EVA project users assumed the (passive) role of the audience, the system envisioned for Phase II will allow the user to actively participate in the argumentation process through a natural language interface. Therefore, the system will be able to react to user utterances, such as opinions, requests and questions, and provide an individualized conversation over the discussed topic. This will be supported by a transparent presentation of pros and cons towards the discussed topic through the agent’s access to recently developed argument search engines and thus contribute to explainability and deeper understanding.