The Intentional Interface

The SERA project put “robot rabbits” in older peoples homes and recorded what happened. The challenge is now to use that data to develop better rabbits, but how? We are currently working on a methodology for distilling this data down into explanatory narratives, but in the mean time we are working on the idea that the essential nature of the SERA interface (and other conversational agents) is that it is intentional it is an interface that sets out to have people ascribe beliefs and desires to it. According to Tomasello, this is not enough however. An intentional interface also needs to intend to help it needs to be cooperative. What this means in detail is fleshed out in the context of an IVR system a computer that answers the telephone.