Abstract
We investigate the impact of anthropomorphism on embodied AI through a study of personal assistants (PA). The effects of physical embodiment remain underexplored while the consumer market for PAs shows an increase in the diversity of physical appearances of these products. We designed three fictional personal assistants with varying levels of embodied anthropomorphism. We validated that our prototypes differed significantly in levels of anthropomorphism (N=26). We developed a set of identical videos for each device, demonstrating realistic end-user interaction across six scenarios. Using a between-subject video survey study (N=150), we evaluate the impact of different levels of embodied anthropomorphism on the perception of personal assistants. Our results show that while anthropomorphism did not significantly affect the perception of Overall Goodness, it affected perceptions of Perceived Intelligence, Likeability, and the device’s Pragmatic Qualities. Finally, we discuss the implications of the identified relationships between anthropomorphism and user confidence in embodied AI systems.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | OzCHI '21 : Proceedings of the 33rd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction |
Number of pages | 11 |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Publication date | 2 Oct 2021 |
Pages | 231–241 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781450395984 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2 Oct 2021 |
Event | Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - Virtual, Australia Duration: 28 Nov 2021 → 3 Dec 2021 |
Conference
Conference | Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction |
---|---|
Location | Virtual |
Country/Territory | Australia |
Period | 28/11/2021 → 03/12/2021 |
Keywords
- Digital assistants
- Anthropomorphism
- Likeability
- Perceived intelligence
- Physical embodiment