Pattie Maes
MIT Media Laboratory
20 Ames Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
pattie@media.mit.edu
The "information highway" will present us with an explosion of new computer-based tasks and services, but the complexity of this new environment will demand a new style of human-computer interaction, where the computer becomes an intelligent, active and personalized collaborator. Interface agents are computer programs that employ Artificial Intelligence techniques to provide active assistance to a user with computer-based tasks. Agents radically change the current user experience, through the metaphor that an agent can act as a personal assistant. The agent acquires its competence by learning from the user as well as from agents assisting other users. Several prototype agents have been built using this technique, including agents that provide personalized assistance with meeting scheduling, electronic mail handling, electronic news filtering and selection of entertainment.
What can agents do for you?
Computers are becoming the vehicle for an increasing range of everyday activities. Acquisition of news and information, mail and even social interactions and entertainment become more and more computer-based. At the same time, an increasing number of untrained users are interacting with computers, and this number will continue to rise as technologies such as hand-held computers and interactive television become popular.
Unfortunately, these technological developments are not going hand in hand with a change in the way people interact with computers. The currently dominant interaction metaphor of direct manipulation [21] requires the user to initiate all tasks explicitly and to monitor all events. This metaphor will have to change if untrained users are to make effective use of the computers and networks of tomorrow.
Techniques from the field of Artificial Intelligence, in particular so-called "autonomous agents", can be used to implement a complementary style of interaction, which has been referred to as indirect management [9]. Instead of user-initiated interaction via commands and/or direct manipulation, the user is engaged in a cooperative process in which human and computer agents both initiate communication, monitor events and perform tasks. The metaphor used is that of a personal assistant who is collaborating with the user in the same work environment. The assistant becomes gradually more effective as it learns the user's interests, habits and preferences (as well as those of his or her community). Notice that the agent is not necessarily an interface between the computer and the user. In fact, the most succesful interface agents are those that do not prohibit the user from taking actions and fulfilling tasks personally (see figure 1).
Agents assist users in a range of different ways:
The set of tasks or applications with which an agent can assist the user is virtually unlimited: information filtering, information retrieval, mail management, meeting scheduling, selection of books, movies, music, etc.
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