PhD Thesis Proposal - Kushal Chawla

PhD Thesis Proposal - Kushal Chawla

Committee Members: Gale Lucas (Chair), Jonathan Gratch, Jonathan May, Peter Kim, Maja Mataric

Title: Computational Foundations for Mixed Motive Human Machine Dialogue

Abstract: Success in a mixed motive interaction demands a balance between self serving and other serving behaviors. For instance, in a typical negotiation, a player must balance maximizing their own goals with the goals of their partner so as to come to an agreement. If the player asks for too much, this can push the partner to walk away without an agreement, hence, hurting the outcomes for all the parties involved. Such interactions are ubiquitous in everyday life, from deciding who performs household chores to customer support and high stake business deals. Consequently, AI tools capable of comprehending and participating in such mixed motive or other social influence interactions such as argumentation or therapy find broad applications in pedagogy and conversational AI.

In this thesis, we present our foundational work for enabling mixed motive human machine dialogue. I will discuss our progress in three key areas. 1.The design of a novel task and dataset of grounded human human negotiations that has fueled our investigations into the impact of emotion expression and linguistic strategies, 2.Techniques for end to end dialogue systems for mixed motive interactions that learn to strike a balance between self and partner interests, and 3.Promoting a research community for dedicated efforts and discussion in this area

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 213

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Melissa Ochoa

Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98290954709?pwd=NndMZ0VlbkJ4L25lVllLYTZZbWgvQT09