Emora: An Inquisitive Social Chatbot Who Cares For You

Sarah E. Finch, James D. Finch, Ali Ahmadvand, Ingyu J. Choi, Xiangjue Dong, Ruixiang Qi, Harshita Sahijwani, Sergey Volokhin, Zihan Wang, Zihao Wang, Jinho D. Choi

1st-Place Winner


Abstract

Inspired by studies on the overwhelming presence of experience-sharing in human-human conversations, Emora, the social chatbot developed by Emory University, aims to bring such experience-focused interaction to the current field of conversational AI. The traditional approach of information-sharing topic handlers is balanced with a focus on opinion-oriented exchanges that Emora delivers, and new conversational abilities are developed that support dialogues that consist of a collaborative understanding and learning process of the partner's life experiences. We present a curated dialogue system that leverages highly expressive natural language templates, powerful intent classification, and ontology resources to provide an engaging and interesting conversational experience to every user.

Venue / Year

Proceedings of the Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge (AlexaPrize) / 2020

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