In this article we introduce the concept of queryable user profile, that is to say, a representation of the user that can be queried through natural language requests. Such a representation allows the user to inspect the information that is encoded in her own profile and is supposed to: (i) make profiling and personalization processes more transparent and responsible; (ii) improve self-awareness and self-consciousness about personal data that are spread on the Web and personal devices. To this end, we designed MyrrorBot, a conversational agent that is built on top of a platform for holistic user modeling called Myrror. Basically, the system supports two groups of intents: (i) natural language requests to inspect the information encoded in the profile; (ii) personalized access to online services, such as music, video, news, and food recommendation. In both the scenarios, every question is caught by the conversational agent that interprets the information need of the user and generates an appropriate answer that fulfills the request. In the experimental evaluation, we investigated both users’ acceptance of the system as well as the time required to access to the information encoded in the profile, and the results showed that our system allows to significantly improve the way people can access to personal information, thus confirming the validity of the intuition and paving the way for further development of our system.

Towards Queryable User Profiles: Introducing Conversational Agents in a Platform for Holistic User Modeling

Musto, Cataldo;Narducci, Fedelucio;Polignano, Marco;de Gemmis, Marco;Lops, Pasquale;Semeraro, Giovanni
2020-01-01

Abstract

In this article we introduce the concept of queryable user profile, that is to say, a representation of the user that can be queried through natural language requests. Such a representation allows the user to inspect the information that is encoded in her own profile and is supposed to: (i) make profiling and personalization processes more transparent and responsible; (ii) improve self-awareness and self-consciousness about personal data that are spread on the Web and personal devices. To this end, we designed MyrrorBot, a conversational agent that is built on top of a platform for holistic user modeling called Myrror. Basically, the system supports two groups of intents: (i) natural language requests to inspect the information encoded in the profile; (ii) personalized access to online services, such as music, video, news, and food recommendation. In both the scenarios, every question is caught by the conversational agent that interprets the information need of the user and generates an appropriate answer that fulfills the request. In the experimental evaluation, we investigated both users’ acceptance of the system as well as the time required to access to the information encoded in the profile, and the results showed that our system allows to significantly improve the way people can access to personal information, thus confirming the validity of the intuition and paving the way for further development of our system.
2020
9781450379502
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/309248
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 7
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact