An Adaptable Dialog Interface Agent Using Meta-Rules

May 2001

Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS 2001)

Volume

Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS 2001)

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We examine adaptable dialogue interface agents using meta-rules to engage in to converse with information seeking callers. For an adaptable dialogue interface agent to exhibit the intelligence required in a dialogue with a user it needs the ability to handle unanticipated user input gracefully in a proper context, that is, it can support ad hoc requests from a user, maintain the topic of discourse, and keep a user from digressing away from the subject. Toward this goal of participation, we propose a plan-based dialog model that aims at achieving a higher level of adaptability by utilizing a set of meta-rules. We use meta-rules as a strategy of controlling an irregular discourse; these can be applied to unexpected responses from a user to analyze whether the responses are incomplete, ambiguous, or inexact in relation to the expectation. The proposed model will allow us to build a dialog-capable interface agent that functions as a middleman between users and information source agents such as database management systems.