Related papers: TherapyProbe: Generating Design Knowledge for Rela…
Conversation agents, commonly referred to as chatbots, are increasingly deployed in many domains to allow people to have a natural interaction while trying to solve a specific problem. Given their widespread use, it is important to provide…
A recent trend in the domain of open-domain conversational agents is enabling them to converse empathetically to emotional prompts. Current approaches either follow an end-to-end approach or condition the responses on similar emotion labels…
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…
Publicly deploying research chatbots is a nuanced topic involving necessary risk-benefit analyses. While there have recently been frequent discussions on whether it is responsible to deploy such models, there has been far less focus on the…
Parenting brings emotional and physical challenges, from balancing work, childcare, and finances to coping with exhaustion and limited personal time. Yet, one in three parents never seek support. AI systems potentially offer stigma-free,…
CHARTOPOLIS is a multi-faceted sociotechnical testbed meant to aid in building connections among engineers, psychologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and artists. Superficially, it is an urban autonomous-vehicle testbed that includes both…
Chatbots' growing popularity has brought new challenges to HCI, having changed the patterns of human interactions with computers. The increasing need to approximate conversational interaction styles raises expectations for chatbots to…
Driven by ongoing improvements in machine learning, chatbots have increasingly grown from experimental interface prototypes to reliable and robust tools for process automation. Building on these advances, companies have identified various…
Rises in the number of animal abuse cases are reported around the world. While chatbots have been effective in influencing their users' perceptions and behaviors, little if any research has hitherto explored the design of chatbots that…
As generative AI chatbots become more personalized and emotionally responsive, they increasingly serve as companions, friends, and romantic partners. Yet these relationships are accompanied by significant uncertainty: users question the…
AI companion chatbots are increasingly used for emotional support, with prior work in the domain predominantly documenting their mixed psychosocial impacts, including both increased emotional expression and heightened loneliness. However,…
Conversational AI chatbots have become increasingly common within the customer service industry. Despite improvements in their emotional development, they often lack the authenticity of real customer service interactions or the competence…
Millions of patients are already using large language model (LLM) chatbots for medical advice on a regular basis, raising patient safety concerns. This physician-led red-teaming study compares the safety of four publicly available…
Mental health conversational agents (a.k.a. chatbots) are widely studied for their potential to offer accessible support to those experiencing mental health challenges. Previous surveys on the topic primarily consider papers published in…
Language Models (LMs) often cannot be deployed because of their potential to harm users in hard-to-predict ways. Prior work identifies harmful behaviors before deployment by using human annotators to hand-write test cases. However, human…
Intelligent conversational agents, or chatbots, can take on various identities and are increasingly engaging in more human-centered conversations with persuasive goals. However, little is known about how identities and inquiry strategies…
Recently, research into chatbots (also known as conversational agents, AI agents, voice assistants), which are computer applications using artificial intelligence to mimic human-like conversation, has grown sharply. Despite this growth,…
Conversational agents are increasingly used as support tools along mental therapeutic pathways with significant societal impacts. In particular, empathy is a key non-functional requirement in therapeutic contexts, yet current chatbot…
Substance use disorders (SUDs) affect millions of people, and relapses are common, requiring multi-session treatments. Access to care is limited, which contributes to the challenge of recovery support. We present \textbf{ChatThero}, an…
Large language models are being deployed as mental health support agents at scale, yet only 16% of LLM-based chatbot interventions have undergone rigorous clinical efficacy testing, and simulations reveal psychological deterioration in over…