Center for Advanced Intelligence Project

This is an online seminar. Registration is required.
Everyone is welcome to join.

Date and Time: October 21st 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (JST)
Venue: Zoom webinar
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Language: English

Speakers:
Prof. Justine Cassell, Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura, Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), RIKEN

Program

Talk 1 Can we Create Real Long-Term Bonds with Artificial Agents ( Prof. Justine Cassell )
Talk 2 Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology (CBAT) as AI for Super Aged Society ( Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura )
Dialogue Social AI and Social Interaction for Human Well-Being
( Prof. Justine Cassell and Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura )

Talk 1

Speaker: Prof. Justine Cassell, Carnegie Mellon University

Title: Can we Create Real Long-Term Bonds with Artificial Agents

Abstract: Concepts such as empathy and rapport have attracted increasing attention in the human-agent and human-robot communities. However, most designers of systems of this sort don’t know what relationships of this kind look like for real people. Consequently, the systems they build are usually boring, useless, or even offensive. I argue that what is needed is a close analysis of how people build social bonds with one another, concentrating in particular on the dyad as the primary unit of analysis and not the individual, and a paradigm for translating those underlying representations of sociality and their instantiation in linguistic and embodied behaviors into strategies for robots and conversational agents. In this talk, I will describe a series of studies that highlight the most important features of social interaction between people, including natural grounded conversation, collaborative tasks, and neuroscientific evidence of social bonds. I will also present a series of conversational agents that implement these interactional behaviors, as well as how to best evaluate these systems. The result is a better understanding of social AI and social interaction in general.

Bio: Justine Cassell is the Dean’s Professor of Language Technologies in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She also holds a chair at the PRAIRIE AI Institute in Paris, and is a director of research at Inria Paris. Previously Cassell founded the Technology and Social Behavior Program at Northwestern University, and was a tenured professor at the MIT Media Lab. Cassell has received the MIT Edgerton Prize, Anita Borg Women of Vision award, AAMAS Test of Time award, and a National Academy of Sciences Prize for Behavioral Science applicable to policy. She is a fellow of the AAAS, Royal Academy of Scotland, and the ACM.

Talk 2

Speaker: Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura, Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), RIKEN
Title: Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology (CBAT) as AI for Super Aged Society

Abstract:
AI nurturing or complementing human intelligence is becoming more important than ever. The goal of the Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology (CBAT), advocated by the author since 2017, is to develop technology assisting cognition and behavior of human with and without disabilities. For the first step, we focus on technology which promotes cognitive health for preventing cognitive decline and dementia among older adults by social activities, since a systematic review found that social activity intervention may help maintain cognitive function among healthy older adults (Kelly et al., 2017), there are no global recommendations for social activity interventions related to cognitive health because evidence of the impact of such intervention is limited (World Health Organization, 2019). One major reason was the lack of technology for generating quantitatively and qualitatively consistent social activities necessary for cognitive intervention. In order to realize cognitive intervention via social activities, we have been developing novel technologies which promote intensive conversations among older adults, and demonstrated their effects on older adults’ cognitive and brain functions. We have also been developing technologies to predict cognitive functions from different modalities of behavioral and/or physiological data, aiming to monitor cognitive functions in everyday life.

Bio:
Mihoko Otake-Matsuura is currently a Team Leader of Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Japan. She is concurrently the Founding Director of the Fonobono Research Institute, Adjunct Professor of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. She studied in Switzerland as a visiting scholar at ETH Zurich. She cooperatively started up Swiss-Japanese Network on Individualized Adaptive Technology and Aging. She is now a co-chair of CODATA WG for Creative Living and Aging through Cross-disciplinary Utilization of Data. Her research topics include modeling and simulation of cognitive function of humans and electroactive polymers and thier applications to design and control of intelligent systems and services. She received her B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. in Mechano-Informatics, respectively, all from the University of Tokyo. She has been an Associate Professor of the University of Tokyo and Chiba University before joining RIKEN. She received Field Innovation Award and Near Future Challenge Award from Japan Society for Artificial Intelligence, MEXT prize for Young Scientists, PRESTO Fellowship Award from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Young Investigator Award from the Robotics Society of Japan.

Dialogue

Speaker:
Prof. Justine Cassell, Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura, Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), RIKEN

Dialogue Title:
Social AI and Social Interaction for Human Well-Being

Abstract: The two speakers may discuss based on the previous talks on “Can we Create Real Long-Term Bonds with Artificial Agents” by Prof. Justine Cassel and on “Cognitive Behavioral Assistive Technology (CBAT) as AI for Super Aged Society” by Dr. Mihoko Otake-Matsuura.

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