What if Word started talking to you? “Like Clippy back in the day or Alexa today, they are precursors to Large Language Models (LLM’s) underlying our conversational user interfaces,” says assistant professor of Industrial Design Minha Lee. “Many people found Clippy annoying, but what if he wrote your article, maybe he would have been quite useful? LLM's like ChatGPT have really taken off in recent months. Both research and daily life are affected. We, for example, need to redefine what plagiarism is. And at the same time we can see how ChatGPT can make our research funnel faster. There are opportunities and challenges to be dealt with.”

Effie Law (Durham University, about human-computer interaction) and Catherine Pelachaud (Sorbonne University, about Greta, the interactive virtual agent platform developed by her research group which can also show emotions), will be two of the speakers around the aforementioned topics and more. “Think of humor, for example, which robots don't have (yet)”, Lee explains. “A researcher will also talk about this at the conference. Why do we find robots that laugh or tell a joke somewhat awkward or even creepy? We just don’t expect them to do that yet. But this kind of stuff is no longer sci-fi: it's all already there.”

Large Language Models

“LLM is very free in what you can put in (question) and what you can get out (answer), and the technology can be part of a chatbot as well as a voicebot.” At the same time, Lee has no illusions about the IQ of the bots. “LLM doesn't solve everything and a language model like ChatGPT is still stupid, but it just comes across smarter compared to the limited customer service bots we've come to know before. That also means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish robot communication from human communication.”

One characteristic where language models still have a lot to learn is how to deal with negations, Lee knows. “They are very bad at that. They find words online that they think might fit the requested answer, but miss negations in the text, which may lead them to give you contradictory advice.” Lee gives an example: “If you were to ask 'what should I do if someone is choking', there is a good chance that you will receive a mix of advice, including things that you should not do if someone is choking, because they can also be found online. As humans we can process those differences well while reading a text, but with ChatGPT's answer that is no longer visible and it can lead to dangerous situations if you follow such instructions blindly.” So the bot already has trouble with negations, but double negations – which are also common in online data that the bots use – certainly bring error. “They all lead to very bad advice, there is still a long way to go.”

Brainport

Lee thinks Brainport needs more focus on software. “This region is so hardware-driven with ASML, Philips and Shapeways for example, while to really move forward in the future, you also need the latest software to be embedded in that hardware. Alexa is a fixed combination product of a piece of software in hardware. ChatGPT could be implemented in all kinds of hardware.”

“In my opinion, Brainport should not just follow the technology but take the lead on this topic,” says Lee. “Software is not yet our strength, but it is becoming increasingly important. We don't just make chips for phones, but all types of smart technology; we are becoming increasingly dependent on conversational technologies like robots, Google Assistant and chatbots equipped with LLMs. There lies an important opportunity and task for Brainport.”

The first guests registered show how internationally popular this conference is: “We received registrations from all over the world,” says registration chair Melanie Swallow. This year, the CUI conference has been designated as an ACM conference for the first time, a special status in the field. “Something we’re very proud of and we’re looking forward to July already,” Lee concludes.

Ticket prices for the conference vary for the different target groups but start at 300 euros. You can register until July 19 at the latest, but people who want to present their already accepted papers or posters must register no later than June 30.

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