Socrates, Please! - Content aware artificial intelligence

Chatbots have come a long way since ELIZA in 1966. However, the focus of most software engineers has been on chatbots designed to fulfill specific functional roles (e.g. customer service), or have an artifical personality that makes them seem convincingly "human".The proposal here for the next frontier of mobility is for a chatbot that emphasizes a new function of artificial intelligence: to improve users' intelligence, by way of Socratic discourse.

1. Socrates, Please! Chatbot Content-aware Artificial Intelligence

2. The ‘ mobility ’ aspect an A.I. chatbot meant for  S ocratic discourse blends   educational technology and critical pedagogy expands constructivist education into any area with cell phone access, which are increasingly more common than stationary computers facilitates informal (lifelong) learning via  encouraging critical thinking , and supplements formal education by lowering the concentration of (or actively challenging) banking education intended to teach users how to ask the  Next Important Question WHAT IS SOCRATES, PLEASE! ?

3. Socrates, Please!  is the wish of a distance learning masters student from Ontario, Canada. While working full-time on the other side of the world, Basia took on several distance learning courses provided by the University of British Columbia, in order to polish her teaching. Course instructors made commendable efforts to keep students engaged and involved via assignments, readings, discussion posts and email correspondence, but Basia felt there was still something missing . What was missing was intellectual discourse. Distance learning is asynchronous. Even with discussion forums, class participation is intermittent between daily life, externally motivated, and less likely to lead to lasting conversations. Perhaps the answer lies in A.I. designed to ask questions, not just give answers. Socrates, Please! is a chatbot that asks open-ended questions to encourage critical thinking and improve understanding. While not a replacement for immediate interaction with classmates or a teacher, Socrates, Please! is the next-best thing. WHY IS IT NEEDED?

4. Asks open-ended questions about what you type, questions that challenge assumptions Supplements learning as an “academic” interactive wall to bounce ideas off of when a fellow academic may not be available Several modes: research mode – questions research design for fallacies or bias social mode – contextualizes questions within the social sphere ethics mode – probes the ethical implications and potential consequences of your comments computational mode – helps decompose problems, recognize patterns/common elements, generalize, and automate solutions live mode – anonymously connects you to another active user to facilitate further exchange of ideas New discussions can be started, renamed, colour -coded, and tagged, to keep your trains of thought organized Deeper learning opportunity in the palm of your hand SOCRATES, PLEASE! …

5. Currently, chatbots : h ave 3 elements: the UI, interpreter (the code), and knowledge database a re based on AIML or trigger-response to a word in the user’s message Two problems : most don’t build on previous messages, and they don’t understand the context of the message WHEN CAN IT BE DONE?

6. Future: The first part is already being improved by software engineers ( Lokman & Zain , 2011). The second problem can be corrected by changing from a keyword-based response system to a syntax-based response system . The A.I. need not understand the meaning of a sentence if the sentence can be parsed. E.g. Input from user: “residence taxes are harmful to society.” A.I. recognizes: “[ subject, pl ] are [descriptor ]” can respond “And what—or who—defines what [subject] are ?” WHEN CAN IT BE DONE?

7. Relevant research: Users respond positively to bots that impersonate famous historical figures (Heller et al., 2005) Chatting with a bot has been shown to increase critical thinking immediately after, improving discussion ( Goda et al., 2014) Teachers provide a mix of social, cognitive, and teaching presence (Anderson, 2011) Little social and cognitive presence leads to a lack of supporting discourse in learning Externally-motivated student interaction (e.g. participation marks) can lead to superficial engagement Socratic questioning can improve understanding, memory, and problem-solving (Paul & Elder, 2016) Chatbots utilizing probing inquiry can have positive effects on development and maintenance of critical thinking ( Goda et al., 2014 ) HOW DOES IT AFFECT LEARNING?

8. Basia Karpi ńs ki B.A. (Hon.) in Multimedia Developed an interest in programming and mobile app development Master of Educational Technology (MET) student at UBC Teaching experience in language acquisition Student experience in traditional classroom setting, blended learning, and distance learning Aiming to create a more engaging online learning experience WHO IS BEHIND THIS?

9. Goda , Y., Yamada, M., Matsukawa, H., Hata , K. (2014, April 7). Conversation with a chatbot before an online EFL group discussion and the effect on critical thinking. Information and systems in education, 13 (1) p.1-7. Retrieved from https :// doi.org/10.12937/ejsise.13.1 Heller, B., Procter, M., Mah , D., Jewell, L., Cheung, B. (2005). Freudbot : An investigation of chatbot technology in distance education. World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications . p.3913–3918. Retrieved from https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/242084006_Freudbot_An_Investigation_of_Chatbot_Technology_in_Distance_Education Kirakowski , J., O’Donnell, P., Yiu , A. (2009). “ Establishing the Hallmarks of a Convincing Chatbot -Human Dialogue” in Human-Computer Interaction. p. 145-154. DOI: 10.5772/7741 Lokman , A. S., Zain , J.M. (2011). Enhancement algorithms for SQL-based chatbot . Software Engineering and Computer Systems. ICSECS 2011. Communications in Computer and Information Science, 180 . p.470-479.  https:// doi-org/10.1007/978-3-642-22191-0_41 Paul, R., Elder, D. (2016) The thinker’s guide to the art of Socratic questioning. Foundation for Critical Thinking Press. ISBN: 978-0-944583-31-9 Rao , L.S.C., Kini , D. (2017, April). Chatbot -a JAVA-based intelligent conversational agent. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology 4 (4) p. 3575. ISSN:2395-0056 REFERENCES