Discussion Forum: Artificial Companions in Society

Abstract

A forum held at the Oxford Internet Institute on 'Artificial Companions in Society. The sessions were: (1) Philosophical conditions for being a Companion, (2) Building a first Companion, (3) Lovers, slaves, tutors or personal trainers? (4) Companions as ways of understanding ourselves and society. It was associated with a lecture by Sherry Turkle: Cyberintimacies / Cybersolitudes.

Questions that arose during the discussions included:

• What does it mean to be human when many once seemingly distinctive aspects of being human can now be simulated by digital systems?
• What are the limits in computer modelling of human behaviour and thinking?
• What do ACs say about the changing relationships between people, and between humans and non-human entities? Are relationships with non-biological entities intrinsically different?

Position papers

• Elisabeth André: Towards more Sensitive Artificial Companions: Combined Interpretation of Affective and Attentive Cues
• Margaret A. Boden: Conversationalists and Confidants
• Joanna J. Bryson: Robots Should Be Slaves
• Roddy Cowie: Companionship is an emotional business
• Chris Davies and Rebecca Eynon: Some implications of creating a digital companion for adult learners
• Luciano Floridi: Philosophical Issues in Artificial Companionship
• Joanie Gillespie: Will Artificial Companions Become Better Than Real Ones?
• David Levy: Falling in Love with a Companion
• Will Lowe: Identifying Your Accompanist
• Alan Newell: Consulting the Users
• Kieron O'Hara: Arius in Cyberspace: The Limits of the Person
• Catherine Pelachaud: Socially-aware expressive embodied conversational agents
• Stephen Pulman: Towards necessary and sufficient conditions for being a Companion
• Daniela M. Romano: The Look, the Emotion, the Language and the Behaviour of a Companion at Real-Time
• Aaron Sloman: Requirements and Their Implications
• Alex S. Taylor and Laurel Swan: Notes on Intelligence
• Yorick Wilks: On being a Victorian Companion
• Alan F.T. Winfield: You really need to know what your bot(s) are thinking