Is spoken language all-or-nothing? Implications for future speech-based human-machine interaction
It addresses the problem of low user adoption in voice assistants for general users, but it is incremental as it builds on existing critiques without proposing a new solution.
This position paper argues that a habitability gap exists between human expectations and current voice assistant capabilities, leading to low user adoption, and suggests that inspiration from interactions like native-non-native speakers or humans-dogs could inform future speech-based human-machine interaction design.
Recent years have seen significant market penetration for voice-based personal assistants such as Apple's Siri. However, despite this success, user take-up is frustratingly low. This position paper argues that there is a habitability gap caused by the inevitable mismatch between the capabilities and expectations of human users and the features and benefits provided by contemporary technology. Suggestions are made as to how such problems might be mitigated, but a more worrisome question emerges: "is spoken language all-or-nothing"? The answer, based on contemporary views on the special nature of (spoken) language, is that there may indeed be a fundamental limit to the interaction that can take place between mismatched interlocutors (such as humans and machines). However, it is concluded that interactions between native and non-native speakers, or between adults and children, or even between humans and dogs, might provide critical inspiration for the design of future speech-based human-machine interaction.