Related papers: Digital Voodoo Dolls
Home assistant chat-bots, self-driving cars, drones or automated negotiations are some of the several examples of autonomous (artificial) agents that have pervaded our society. These agents enable the automation of multiple tasks, saving…
Direct democracy is often proposed as a possible solution to the 21st-century problems of democracy. However, this suggestion clashes with the size and complexity of 21st-century societies, entailing an excessive cognitive burden on voters,…
Democracy research faces a longstanding experimentation bottleneck. Potential institutional innovations remain untested because human-subject studies are slow, expensive, and ethically fraught. This paper argues that digital homunculi, that…
In this paper, we address the problem of creating believable agents (virtual characters) in video games. We consider only one meaning of believability, ``giving the feeling of being controlled by a player'', and outline the problem of its…
As chatbots increasingly blur the boundary between automated systems and human conversation, the foundations of trust in these systems warrant closer examination. While regulatory and policy frameworks tend to define trust in normative…
Liquid democracy is a mechanism for the division of labor in decision-making through the transitive delegation of influence. In essence, all individuals possess the autonomy to determine the issues with which they will engage directly,…
The introduction of artificial intelligence into activities traditionally carried out by human beings produces brutal changes. This is not without consequences for human values. This paper is about designing and implementing models of…
Scientists have traditionally limited the mechanisms of social cognition to one brain, but recent approaches claim that interaction also realizes cognitive work. Experiments under constrained virtual settings revealed that interaction…
The neutrality thesis holds that technology cannot be laden with values. This long-standing view has faced critiques, but much of the argumentation against neutrality has focused on traditional, non-smart technologies like bridges and…
The advent of the digital era provided a fertile ground for the development of virtual societies, complex systems influencing real-world dynamics. Understanding online human behavior and its relevance beyond the digital boundaries is still…
This short paper puts forward a vision for a new democratic model enabled by the recent technological advances in agentic AI. It therefore opens with drawing a clear and concise picture of the model, and only later addresses related…
On the Internet large service providers tend to control the digital identities of users. These defacto identity authorities wield significant power over users, compelling them to comply with non-negotiable terms, before access to services…
A fiduciary is a trusted agent that has the legal duty to act with loyalty and care towards a principal that employs them. When fiduciary organizations interact with users through a digital interface, or otherwise automate their operations…
This work investigates the causal mechanism behind the effect of chatbot personification and persuasion strategies on users' perceptions and donation likelihood. In a 2 (personified vs. non-personified chatbot) x 2 (emotional vs. logical…
Bots are automated social media users that can be used to amplify (mis)information and sow harmful discourse. In order to effectively influence users, bots can be generated to reproduce human user behavior. Indeed, people tend to trust…
Artificial computing machinery transforms representations through an objective process, to be interpreted subjectively by humans, so the machine and the interpreter are different entities, but in the putative natural computing both…
As artificial intelligence rapidly advances, society is increasingly captivated by promises of superhuman machines and seamless digital futures. Yet these visions often obscure mounting social, ethical, and psychological concerns tied to…
Gender is a social framework through which people organize themselves-and non-human subjects, including robots. Research stretching back decades has found evidence that people tend to gender artificial agents unwittingly, even with the…
Conversational agents are increasingly integrated into the most private and intimate aspects of users' lives, from discussions of mental health to financial decisions. As a result, these systems have access to reams of sensitive user data.…
Work must be reshaped in the upcoming new era characterized by new challenges and the presence of new technologies and computational tools. Over-automation seems to be the driver of the digitalization process. Substitution is the paradigm…