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This paper presents the Artificial Agency Program (AAP), a position and research agenda for building AI systems as reality embedded, resource-bounded agents whose development is driven by curiosity-as-learning-progress under physical and…
We study the problem of designing AI agents that can robustly cooperate with people in human-machine partnerships. Our work is inspired by real-life scenarios in which an AI agent, e.g., a virtual assistant, has to cooperate with new users…
As we build towards developing interactive systems that can recognize human emotional states and respond to individual needs more intuitively and empathetically in more personalized and context-aware computing time. This is especially…
Against rising global loneliness, AI companions promise connection, yet accumulating evidence suggests that, for some users and contexts, intensive companion-style use can correlate with increased loneliness and reduced offline…
AI companion chatbots, such as those offered by Replika and CharacterAI, increasingly function as always-available companions that provide empathy, validation, and support. While these systems appear to meet basic needs for connection,…
We need open platforms driven by specialists, in which queries can be created and collected for long periods and the diagnosis made, based on a rigorous clinical follow-up. In this work, we developed a multi-language robot interface helping…
Virtual agents are commonly used in physical activity interventions to support behavior change, often taking the role of coaches that deliver encouragement and feedback. While effective for compliance, this role typically lacks relational…
Online mental health communities (OMHCs) are an effective and accessible channel to give and receive social support for individuals with mental and emotional issues. However, a key challenge on these platforms is finding suitable partners…
Agents represent one of the most emerging applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI, with their effectiveness hinging on multimodal capabilities to navigate complex user environments. Conversational Health Agents…
Identifying and resolving conflicts of interests is a key challenge when designing autonomous agents. For example, such conflicts often occur when complex information systems interact persuasively with humans and are in the future likely to…
Technology has the opportunity to assist older adults as they age in place, coordinate caregiving resources, and meet unmet needs through access to resources. Currently, older adults use consumer technologies to support everyday life,…
This paper proposes a design tool to investigate the properties and emergent behaviours of a special class of Ambient Assisted Living systems, namely mutual assistance communities where the dwellers contribute to each other's well being.…
LLM-based voice assistants (VAs) increasingly support older adults aging in place, yet how an assistant's agreeableness shapes explanation perception remains underexplored. We conducted a study(N=70) examining how VA agreeableness…
This position paper is part of a long-term research project on human-machine co-creativity with older adults. The goal is to investigate how robots and AI-generated content can contribute to older adults' creative experiences, with a focus…
As voice assistants (VAs) become increasingly integrated into daily life, the need for emotion-aware systems that can recognize and respond appropriately to user emotions has grown. While significant progress has been made in speech emotion…
A social interaction is a social exchange between two or more individuals,where individuals modify and adjust their behaviors in response to their interaction partners. Our social interactions are one of most fundamental aspects of our…
We present our approach to using AI-generated content (AIGC) and multiple media to develop an immersive, game-based, interactive story experience. The narrative of the story, "Memory Remedy", unfolds through flashbacks, allowing the…
As the permeability of AI systems in interpersonal domains like the home expands, their technical capabilities of generating explanations are required to be aligned with user expectations for transparency and reasoning. This paper presents…
The presence of artificial agents in human social networks is growing. From chatbots to robots, human experience in the developed world is moving towards a socio-technical system in which agents can be technological or biological, with…
This paper describes a system developed to help people explore local communities by providing navigation services in social spaces created by the community members via communication and knowledge sharing. The proposed system utilizes data…