Dialogue Systems : Simulations or Interfaces ?

This paper raises the question of the aim and scope of formal research on dialogue. Two possible answers are distinguished – the “engineering” and the “simulation” view – and an argument against the soundness of the “simulation” position is reviewed. This argument centres on the (im)possibility of formalising the context (or “background”) needed for human-level language understanding. This argument is then applied to formal dialogue research and some consequences are discussed.