Page 18 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Chapter 1

SOCIALLY INTELLIGENT AGENTS

Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

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Kerstin Dautenhahn , Alan Bond , Lola Cañamero , and Bruce Edmonds 3
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University of Hertfordshire, California Institute of Technology, Manchester Metropolitan
University
Abstract This introduction explains the motivation to edit this book and provides an over-
view of the chapters included in this book. Main themes and common threads
that can be found across different chapters are identified that might help the
reader in navigating the book.

1. Background: Why this book?

The field of Socially Intelligent Agents (SIA) is by many perceived as a
growing and increasingly important research area that comprises very active
research activities and strongly interdisciplinary approaches. The field of So-
cially Intelligent Agents is characterized by agent systems that show human-
style social intelligence [5]. Humans live in individualized societies where
group members know each other, so do other animal species, cf. figure 1.1.
Although overlap exists, SIA systems are different from multi-agent systems
that a) are often only loosely related to human social intelligence, or use very
different models from the animal world, e.g. self-organization in social in-
sect societies, or b) might strongly focus on the engineering and optimization
aspects of the agent approach to software engineering.
In the past, two AAAI Fall Symposia were organized on the topic of So-
cially Intelligent Agents, in 1997 and 2000. Both symposia attracted a large
number of participants. The first symposium gave a general overview on the
spectrum of research in the field, and in the years following this event a vari-
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ety of publications (special journal issues and books) resulted from it .Also,
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a number of related symposia and workshops were subsequently organized .
Unlike the 1997 symposium, the 2000 symposium specifically addressed the
issue of Socially Intelligent Agents - The Human in the Loop. A special issue