W05: Clash of the Zuckerborg vs the Zubot

Clash of the Zuckerborg vs the Zubot

This workshop is part of a Conversational AI stream, hosted by Phil D. Hall. It follows on from a talk at 10:30-11:30 and a panel session 12:10-13:10 on Thursday 21 May.

Participants will help create two Conversational AI systems: one based on Mark Zuckerberg and the other on Shoshana Zuboff. On Friday, these opposing creations will engage in conversation.

The workshop is in two parts:

On Thursday 20 May, 14:35-15:35, following on from the talk and panel session earlier in the day, Phil and Rik will work with two teams to gather sufficient conversational content to populate two built-for-conference AIs. In this session team members will write conversational responses for the two AI’s. It is a guarantee that the process and the outcome will be unusual and enlightening.

Then on Friday 21 May, 14:05-15:35, Phil and Rik, having configured the Zuckerborg and the Zubot overnight, will set the two talking. This will be part demonstration, part debate. The Z’borg and Z’bot themselves might well join in the conversation.

This hands-on, collaborative workshop will enable you to:

• Recognise the drivers for conversation design and underlying conversational functionality
• Create some conversational copy and concepts in real-time in a collaborative environment
• Explore the limits of practical, transparent conversational AI vs. no-code editor platforms
• Look over the threshold at diverse team requirements and dynamics to take conversational AI to a new level.

Who should attend this workshop

Anyone who wants to explore or understand Conversational AI.

If you are interested in how Conversational AI can be generated from real-time conversations and structured in a transparent fashion, you will find this workshop highly stimulating and enlightening. The workshop will not be overly technical, all types of people are very, very welcome, no algorithmic experience necessary!

This workshop may be of particular interest to those that work in the healthcare, education, and entertainment sectors, or those wishing to deliver sophisticated conversation in a transparent and ethical manner.

As a fog of AI descends on the intelligentsia in the silos of academia and business, join us to break out of the common notions and move into a response-ability new Conversational AI paradigm.

Workshop Leaders

Phil D. Hall, Elzware
Phil has been delivering practical, effective, resilient conversational A.I. systems for 20 years across business sectors, healthcare, education, and charities. He studied anthropology as a mature student at University College London. He makes hybrid AI-based conversational AI systems such as the www.echoborg.com for fun, and training systems, which are definitely less fun.

Rik Lander, U Soap Media
Rik is a freelance conversation designer for chatbots. He creates characters and writes copy and code for automated entities. He leads a cross-disciplinary research team at the University of the West of England exploring how different “behaviours” expressed by an artificially intelligent training bot alter its relationship with users and the effectiveness of the training. He co-devised, I am Echoborg, a theatrical show created afresh each time by an audience having a conversation with an artificial intelligence.