Week 8
Project Week!
This week I focused more on my RPO since the submission is coming up next week, but I also wanted to start working on some of my moodboarding and planning for the custom chatbot personalities I want to explore. I used this time to think about how these personalities might behave and how they could inform the conversational interactions I aim to develop next week.
Personalities
Personalities are something that I think of as more of a human quality. If we look
at existing AI assistants, they mostly speak in a very neutral tone. Even companion
chatbots such as Replika do not seem to have a distinct way of texting, and while
they sound less robotic, their tone still feels very neutral. This made me wonder
what would happen if AI had strong and distinct personalities rather than defaulting
to neutrality.
I decided to create a visual moodboard of four different personality types:
empathetic, playful, chaotic, and thoughtful. These will act as a
starting point for how the chatbots may behave and converse.
Kaomojis as a Face
I want to push the personification of AI further, and one of the ways I plan to do this
is by adding a face to it. Since most chatbots are text-based, very few have a visual
character or identity attached to them. I decided to use kaomojis to represent the
chatbot’s expressions, as they are highly customisable compared to standard Apple
emojis. There are hundreds of kaomoji variations that users have collated into online
libraries, and this gives me more flexibility in adapting expressions to match different
personalities.
I also wanted to stick with something that still feels rooted in text, as if the chatbot
itself is typing out its expression. This allows the face to stay consistent with its
text-based nature, making the personality feel more integrated into the interface.
Moodboards
Empathetic
For the first personality, I chose warm and soft colours to represent something approachable and gentle. I added Baymax from Big Hero 6 as a character reference, because Baymax has a very caring and lovable aspect to him. While he still sounds robotic, his conversational tone feels sentient and empathetic, which aligns well with what I want for the empathetic chatbot personality.
Playful
The playful personality uses bright and fun colours, and the kaomoji has a very expressive and exaggerated face. BB-8 was the character I thought of here. In context, BB-8 has dramatic reactions, and even though it does not speak words, its pitchy beeping sounds and timing convey what it is feeling. I want the chatbot personality to have a similar playful tone in conversation.
Chaotic
The chaotic personality is much stronger and uses intense colours like bright red and blue. The character I used here is Ocho from The Amazing World of Gumball, a show I used to watch. Ocho is explosive and easily loses its temper, which inspired me to create a personality that is less agreeable and more unpredictable. I did not want all the personalities to be positive, so including a chaotic one adds contrast and variety.
Thoughtful
The last personality is calmer and more thoughtful compared to the others. It is not thoughtful in the same way as current AI assistants, but more like a friend who gives advice and speaks in a measured tone. This personality balances the set and gives users an option that feels more grounded.
Next Steps
After hearing about Aditi and Jeffrey’s talk last week, I want to go more in depth into making custom GPTs and training them to get the outcomes I want. I intend for these custom chatbot personalities to act as a future probe, allowing me to test specific conversational cues and see how well they are received by others. I am also curious to see which types of personalities people prefer talking to or feel more comfortable disclosing personal information to.