UCSD Communication Human Interaction with Voice Assistant Essay

Choose 2 or more interactions from your audio clip (Part 1), and transcribe it/them. Analyze in detail the transcribed interaction/s by engaging 2 of the following 4 prompts:

1)Describe circumstances in which the voice assistant is social. What makes the voice assistant social, how is its social character enacted and maintained?

2)Enumerate and describe aspects of the situation that make the voice assistant a thing. Do the same for those aspects that render it an agent.

3)Describe how human interactants provide “intimacy” for the voice assistant.

4)Describe how humans align with the voice assistant, how they become who they are through their interaction with the voice assistant.

Jingxin Wu
Comm 174
Project 2, part 1
After a few days of observation, I found most people around me are not used to using
voice assistants. Most of them prefer to just type their question or just do what they need by
themselves, I think one of the reasons is the voice assistant sometimes can’t understand what
they need, it’s more effective and save time just do it by themselves. in my opinion, voice
assistants are a supplemental technology that won’t replace my phone, but they make it
easier to do some tasks such as adding memos and reminders and send and answer
messages and texts. So my main object of record will be myself and one of my close
friends since I live alone. I choose to start recording when it is inconvenient to use the
mobile phone, because my observation shows that people use the voice assistant more
frequently when they cannot directly use the mobile phone.
First audio:
The situation is I actually like to play some music while I am taking shower. So I
connected my phone to the speaker and start playing music. Then I started to take a
shower and put the phone aside. I want to change the song and turn up the volume but
I’m afraid of getting my phone wet so I used siri. And for sure siri did that for me. This
took place in the bathroom of my apartment. This has not happened much in the past,
but after I took the COMM 174 class this quarter, I realize that voice assistants are
much better than they used to be, and will become a very useful and practical tool in the
future. So I use different kinds of voice assistant more often. Nothing much changed in
the bathroom except my phone played a different song and the music became louder.
But I was very pleased with siri’s response. So I am the only one interacted with the bot
in this situation. I think the emotion I involved is I was surprised at how siri had changed,
because before siri often couldn’t understand my commands or maybe it’s because of
my accent.
Second audio:
I set up the recording app and the alarm before I went to bed to see if I will have
any interaction with the voice assistant when I just woke up. The app start recording
before the alarm rang. I put out my hand and turned off the alarm. Don’t really want to
open my eyes, because today is Sunday and I felt cold so I ask siri what is the weather
like today. Siri answered my questions about the weather in great detail and put a lot of
inquiries about the weather on the screen which is super helpful for me to decide what I
should wear today. Then I was planning to do the grocery shopping today so I ask siri
how far is it to drive to the nearest target. Siri also answer my question quickly, then I
woke up and get ready for my grocery shopping. This took place in my room, I will say
this happened pretty often because I was too lazy to type or look at the screen when I
just woke. Voice assistant is always a great and helpful choice to answer my question
and start planning for the day. My room was not different at all this time. Still I am the
only one who interacted with the bot. I felt helpful and also made me feel the practicality
of voice assistant. She really has many functions that can make our daily life more
efficient and improve our quality of life. At the same time, it brings more convenience to
our lives.
Third audio:
After I get ready for my grocery shopping, I start recording again to see if there is
any other interaction between me and the voice assistants.after I done my grocery
shopping, I started driving home as usual and trying to set up the navigation to my
apartment. I tried to wake up siri and let her do the job but somehow my phone was
disconnected to the internet so siri isn’t working at that time. So I press the button call
“voice control” in my car. And let her set up the navigation instead I need to pull over
and spend a lot of time to enter the address. I can still focus on the road and keep
driving. This voice assistant not only improved safety while I am driving, but also
allowed me not to get lost even without a connection to the internet. This action took
place in my car while I am driving. I would say when I’m driving is the time I used voice
assistant most frequently. Although the place hasn’t changed since using the voice
assistant, but it saved me from getting lost in some way. Still, I am the only one who
interacted with the bot since I am driving alone. But it also made me appreciate the
convenience of technology even more, because it was actually an accident that I was
going to use siri, and it proved that we might need several different voice assistants in
our daily lives, and I was grateful because there was nothing else that could help me.
Fourth audio:
I was playing 2k20 with my friends online, which is a basketball game that you
can create your own player and team. During the game, I was wondering which team
is currently the best team in the nba now and what was the score of their last game.
Obviously siri gave me all the information I asked for even though I am holding the
controller to play the game. Siri shows a lot of detailed data and stats about the game.
Then I ask how much is the ticket price of the lakers game, siri even browse a few
websites for me to purchase the ticket which is really time saving. I could just talk to siri
or say a few words instead of spending time typing and researching for the information I
want. I can’t wait to develop more feature of voice assistants. This action actually took
place in the living room of my apartment, this situation doesn’t happen often. Before, the
voice assistant could not understand some of my relatively complex commands. I had to
adjust my accent and instructions, sometimes I need to try several times and I am not a
very patient person. The place has not changed in response to the bot conversation and
I am the only one who interacted with the bot. My friend did listen to the whole
conversation between me and siri. Both of emotion are amazed at the progress and
improvements of voice assistants today compared to when they just came out. He did
notice that the interaction took place, because in our mind we are not used to using
voice assistants, so when I use them, he feels strange. But I firmly believe that voice
assistants will become a part of my life in the future.
Fifth audio:
The fifth audio is me and my friend doing our homework assignment for management
class together at price center. Usually this assignment contains a lot of technical terms.
If we want to get the assignment done we need to understand those terms and how all
the formula works. We used to spend a lot of time looking for definitions of these terms
in professor slides or type in those long words in google and look up for it. After
communicating with my friends about the possible help and the potential of the voice
assistant to our study, I believe that the voice assistants can make the process of
studying more efficient. So I start recording before we start to see if we will have any
interaction with voice assistant. After few minutes of study, my friend wake up her siri
and ask what is the definition of diversification and the formula of how to calculate
expected return. For the definition siri just gave her the definition. And for the formula
siri found some website for her according to the question. And they are both helpful
answer. Then she just keep doing the assignment after she got the answer. This took
place in the price center. I don’t see many people using voice assistants during the
process of study. But I think it’s a good idea to suggest that a voice assistant can be a
useful learning tool, but it can be distracting to the person next to you who is studying.
And the place are not different after the response of the bot. It’s my friend interacting
with bot. It wasn’t much emotions involved probably because my friend already get used
to the voice assistants and it has already become one of her tools to study. Which I
think is great. I think I am the only one who present engage in this interaction because I
was the one to ask her the questions and then she wake up her siri and ask siri the
question. I did notice the interaction took place.
Communication and social machines
So what? How does this matter?
Apply more abstract/general knowledge acquired in other classes to a specific and
contemporary relevant case.
Reflect upon appropriate methods/approaches to study such a case.
●
Trying to do a machine that give a sense that somebody is out there
What are social machines?
● Industrial robots
○ Most common;
●
●
●
Military robots
Service robots
Medical robots
Social robot able to communicate and interact with us, understand and even relate to us, in a
personal way. It is a robot that is socially intelligent in a human-like way. We interact with it as if
it were a person, and ultimately as a friend.” (breazeal, 2002)
Understanding & treating people as people
What is meant by “social”?
● O8-11
● Social does not correspond to “Social species”, it is about “human-style sociability”
“Interacting with a sociable robot should not be like interacting with an ant or a fish, for instance.
Although ants and fish are social species, they do not support the human desire to treat others
as distinct personalities and to be treated the same in turn.
●
●
human -style sociability” = treating others as distinct personalities and being treated the
same in turn; to have a relationship with others on an individual basis.
But we need not only believability(as in classical animation)but readability. Readability is
achieved when observable behaviors can be related to character’s internal (mental)
states that govern that behavior( intents, desires,beliefs, emotions)
Kismet videos:
●
Study human behavior
Why build such robots?
● Because of the human biological characteristics (evo+devo)
● “Humans are the most socially advanced of all species”
● Human “natural social machinery”(6)
Riskin: automata
Vaucanson’s automata
Philosophical experiments or “simulations” = experimental models from which one can discover
properties of the natural subject (605)
“Attempts to discern which features of living creatures could be reproduced in machinery, and
to what degree, and what such reproduction may reveal about its subjects” (601)
Vaucanson’s automatic loom
Provokes a rethinking of the boundary that divides intelligent and unintelligent work, humanity
from machinery
Castaneda & suchman,2014
When you look at science, you can use science to look culture
Science doesn’t exist outside culture
“As the inseparability of science and/as culture is well recognized within contemporary science
and technology studies(STS), perhaps nowhere is this
Semiotics
–
Study of signs; how sign systems function
Objects and technologies as signs
-roland barthes-mythologies
Denotation vs. connotation
-literal(code)vs. Cultural (contains a value judgment)
Castabeda &suchman, 2014
“In exploring lucy as a figuration, we seek to unravel the worlds condensed in her form, to
consider the worlds that constitute her figuration as well as the world that she figures forth… to
recover from the singular bodies of grand and lucy the complex histories and imaginaries that
give them life.”
What is meant by”social”?
Breazeal, 2002:8-11
●
●
“Human-style sociability”= treating others as distinct personalities and being treated the
same in turn(8); to have a relationship with others on an individual basis.
But we need not only believability (As in classical animation) but readability. Readability
is achieved when observable behaviors can be related to character’s internal(mental)
states that govern that behavior (intents, desires, beliefs, emotions) (10)
Important ideas so far!
● Robots contain cultural ideas and semiotic ideologies
● Robots appertain to histories
● We must consider robots in respect to other technologies (robotic genealogies +
maintenance)
● What roboticists mean by “social” in “social” robots” how mind and agency is defined
Project 1, part I due by e-mail this Monday, october 28th, 6 pm
By email
socialsocialmachines@gmail.com
Project 1, part I due
-find your favorite chatbot
Ex.cleverbot
Google list of fun chatbots, chatbot finder
OBEY grandma rule
Answer the following question: what did you learn about social robots from your interaction with
this chatbot? Write 1 long paragraph but do not exceed 1 page in length)
Bring your chatbot transcript with youm printed on paper
Interaction with digital technologies
● Human-hymanoid interaction
● Computer mediated communication (CMC)
● HUman-computer interaction(HCI)
● post -human cyborgization
Similarities
● Linguistically based, relational, normative
Boundary and differences
● Interpretative asymmetry
● Domain related and domain restricted
● Indexical nature of human communication(garfinkel)
Body + environment in social machines
What is meant by “social” in social robotics?
Body as voice that is to manifest a self behind it
“For the mouth is more than just the part of the body specialized for the production of speech. It
is the way in which…
Sociality in the opening with the world?
Assignments:
● Interaction with a chatbot
● Re-enactments
● Observations of ordinary interactions with DVAs
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Assignment 1 part ii
Set up and film in 2 different settings the same dialogue you performed as a theater
piece in class( make 2 films, 1 per setting)
Each film should not exceed 2 minutes
○ Select clearly identifiable settings/locations that are familiar to you
○ Try to memorize the text and do some good acting
○ Shorten your dialogues as much as possible
○ Consider making dialogues part of actions/evemts
○ Consider costumes and other props
○ Do not worry about embellishing the films (e.g. opening and closing credits,etc.)
Project ii, part 1
Due by friday of week 8= friday, november 22nd, 6pm
Max point:20(20%)
Capture 5 naturally occurring interactions between you/your family members/your
roommates and a voice assistant of your choice(select your assistant wisely)
Start with observations (you should observe for at least a couple of days vefore
recording)
○
○
○
Identify who will be the best person for you to observe (you need a frequent user
and a good fiedsite access?)
Get familiar with their use of the technology (when do they use it>how do they
use it?in what situations?who is there?)
Organize for optimal recordings(consider carefully how exactly you will be record
audio, photos,notes)
●
Provide descriptions of the situation, setting, and the flow of interaction
○ Situation:what is going on? Describe the action that the bot conversation is part
of. Then ask yourself: what happened before? What happened then? What
happened after that?
○ Setting:describe the exact place in which the action took place. Then ask
yourself: how often do you see these action take place in that spot? Was the
place different in any respect this time? Did the place change in response to the
bot conversation in any way?
○ Interaction: describe how exactly the interaction took place. Ask: who interacted
with the bot? Can you describe emotions involved? Was anybody else present?
Did others who were present engage in the interaction in any way?
●
Goffman, Erving
1981 “footing.” in: forms of talk,124-157.
Philadelphia:University of pennsylvania press
Conversation
● Coordination of behavior
● To coordinate behavior participants need to display
Techniques for coordination:
● Use of “back channels”- words like uh huh, yeah
● Multimodal signals- eye gaze, head nodes
● Importance of timing
“Participation”
● The interactive work that speakers as well as hearers engage in
Inadequacy of the “speaker-hearer” dichotomy(goffman,1979
“Speaker+ hearer”
● Global folk categories
● Not only about the auditory channel
● Can be decomposed in a range of structurally different kinds of participants (defined in
terms of how they are positioned in an encounter)
Roles available to speaker
● Animator-person who gives voice to a message that is being conveyed
● author – one who is responsible for the words being expressed
● Principal- person whose beliefs are being expressed
Speakers produce talk for “hearers”
They need to have a systematic method of determining whether or not someone is positioned
as a hearer to their talk
Audience displays
1. Whether or not they are attending to a speaker’s talk- gazing toward the speaker or
producing brief vocalizations
2. Their stance toward itHearer as an active, powerful participant
Audience is shaped and shapes the talk it is attending
Things that talk
jeremijenko , natalie
2005 “if things can talk,what do they say? If we can talk to things, what do we say?”, electronic
book review
What do they say?
castaneda&suchman,2014
“As the inseparability of science and/as culture is well recognized within contemporary
Autonomy of things
Nass, clifford&jonathan steuer
(1993) “voices, boxes, and sources of messages: computers and social actors,” human
communication research,19(4):504-527
● Engaging technologies using responses based on social, rather than machnic behavior
● machine(rather than creator) as the source of the message
● Beliefs do not guide bahavior! We can be cued to base our behavior on the general
characteristics of a situation (507)
● Characteristics that cue the idea that one is interacting with a social actor (507-8)
● 1. Language
● Interactivity
● Filling of a social role
● Speech
Why this exercise functions as a pedagogical tool?
● It made us cross the rubicon = from judging and fearing robots to taking them as an
opportunity to study communication
● Does this imply a disengaged/ apolitical take? No ! by training for noticing we acquire
more pervasive tools (beyond the specific dva case) as we focus on communication, we
become aware what is at stake and can resist from a place of choice
1. Use siri while running or in the gym: hi siri what is my heart rate/ hi siri play next track
2. Use siri while driving: hi siri
3. Use siri while I brush my teeth in the morning or taking shower to turn up the music
4. Use voice control to get me home while me or my friend driving, not safe to type in the
address or holding the phone
5. Ask siri what was the score from the last lakers game
Provide descriptions of the situation, setting,and the flow of interaction
● Situation: what is going on? Describe the action that the bot conversation is part of. Then
ask yourself: what happened before? What happened then? What happened after
that?…
● Setting: describe the exact place in which the action took place. Then ask yourself: how
often do you see these actions take place in that spot? Was a place different in any
respect this time? Did the place change in response to the bot conversation in any
way?..
● Interaction: describe how exactly the interaction took place. Ask: who interacted with the
bot? Can you describe emotions involved? Was anybody else present? Did others who
were present engage in the interaction in any way? Did they notice that the interaction
took place?
in my opinion, voice assistants are a supplemental technology that won’t replace my
phone, but they make it easier to do some tasks such as add memos and reminders
and send and answer messages and texts.
879 ji
1.describe circumstances in which the voice assistant is social. What makes the voice
assistant social, how is its social character enacted and maintained?
2. Enumerate and describe aspects of the situation that make the voice assistant a
thing. Do the same for those aspects that render it an agent.
3. Describe how human interactants provide “intimacy” for the voice assistant.
4. Describe how humans align with the voice assistant, how they become who they are
through their interaction with the voice assistant
Formatting:
1.5 spacing
Start by specifying and defining the prompt. Use the class readings quote property
In answering the prompt, be as precise as you can. Stay concrete.
Always back up your claim with the empirical material you collected. (audio
recording,field-notes,photos,etc.)
It is a good idea to write a short conclusion.
Always provide “ work cited”section
Write 2 pages for each prompt