Social Implications of Using Synthetic Characters: An Examination of a Role-Specific Intelligent Agent

When designing intelligent interface agents, it is important to consider the social context in which they will operate. Designing an agent for a specified role helps make good performance possible, by constraining actions users will take in their corresponding social roles. This paper examines the performance of a situated intelligent agent that was designed to perform a specific social role (bartender), toward a better understanding of how to design agents to fill such roles. The agent's successes and failures are discussed, as are visitors' responses to the agent, and design recommendations are made that have relevance to the design of intelligent interactive social agents in general.