AniMed*: An Automated Animated Mediator for Facilitating Negotiation with People

Mediation is an important paradigm for dispute resolution which dates back to Ancient Greece. The goal is to reach an agreement, i.e. a mutually accepted solution, without resorting to a struggle. Yet, when people negotiate they demonstrate bounded rationality in their actions and diversity in their behaviors. This increases the difficulty to design automated mediators. To be successful, the mediator must take this into account and propose solutions deemed relevant, otherwise it will lose the focus and trust of the negotiators. We introduce AniMed* – an automated vivid animated mediator, incorporated with a novel proposal generation strategy, aimed to increase the social benefit of the negotiating parties. We will display the negotiation system and allow people to interact “face-to-face” with the automated mediator on various domains.