Building Emic-Based Cultural Mediations to Support Artificial Cultural Awareness (original) (raw)
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From Artificial Intelligence to Artificial Culture
Historically, cognitive sciences in general and artificial intelligence in particular have had little to say about human culture. However, if the modest success of nascent field of cognitive science of culture in explaining aspects of culture is any indication, further contributions from cognitive scientists may be needed to develop a predictive computational science of culture. This paper outlines a number of promising directions along which artificial intelligence researchers can contribute to this exciting new field.
Cultural Agents: A Community of Minds
Engineering Societies in the Agents World VI, 2006
Intelligent agents embedded in cultural processes demonstrate remarkable powers of creation, transformation, stability and regulation. As G.P. Murdock said in his 1971 Huxley Lecture, culture and social structure are not divine law within which individuals simply satisfy their assigned objectives and then die. Culture gives agents the power to hyper-adapt: not only can they achieve local minima and maxima, they modify or create the conditions for adaptation. Culture transcends material and behavioural contexts. Cultural solutions are instantiated in material and behavioural terms, but are based in large part on 'invented' symbolic constructions of the interaction space and its elements. Although the level of 'intelligence' required to enact culture is relatively high, agents that enact culture create conditions to which other, less intelligent, agents will also adapt. A little culture goes a long way. We will consider culture design criteria and how these can be represented in agent-based models and how culture-based solutions might contribute to our global management of knowledge.
Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence -- Problems, Challenges and Solutions
arXiv (Cornell University), 2023
In the contemporary interconnected world, the concept of cultural responsibility occupies paramount importance. As the lines between nations become less distinct, it is incumbent upon individuals, communities, and institutions to assume the responsibility of safeguarding and valuing the landscape of diverse cultures that constitute our global society. This paper explores the socio-cultural and ethical challenges stemming from the implementation of AI algorithms and highlights the necessity for their culturally responsive development. It also offers recommendations on essential elements required to enhance AI systems' adaptability to meet the demands of contemporary multicultural societies. The paper highlights the need for further multidisciplinary research to create AI models that effectively address these challenges. It also advocates the significance of AI enculturation and underlines the importance of regulatory measures to promote cultural responsibility in AI systems.
Applied Linguistics Review, 2024
This paper discusses the way the concept of culture is discursively con- structed by large language models that are trained on massive collections of cultural artefacts and designed to produce probabilistic representations of culture based on this training data. It makes the argument that, no matter how ‘diverse’ their training data is, large language models will always be prone to stereotyping and over- simplification because of the mathematical models that underpin their operations. Efforts to build ‘guardrails’ into systems to reduce their tendency to stereotype can often result in the opposite problem, with issues around culture and ethnicity being ‘invisiblised’. To illustrate this, examples are provided of the stereotypical linguistic styles and cultural attitudes models produce when asked to portray different kinds of ‘persona’. The tendency of large language models to gravitate towards cultural and linguistic generalities is contrasted with trends in intercultural communication towards more fluid, socially situated understandings of interculturality, and impli- cations for the future of cultural representation are discussed.
A Model of Culture for Cognitive Agents
International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies, 2012
Misunderstandings derived from cultural differences represent a main barrier for effective communication and collaboration. As part of a platform aimed at supporting intercultural interactions, the authors present a synthetic model for quantifying culture. Their approach is based on theories which abstract culture as a set of quantifiable aspects called cultural dimensions. Given that in general, the values of cultural dimensions are subjective and highly dependent on the observer judgment, they are modeled as linguistic variables. Linguistic variables allow profiling users using pseudo natural language which is appropriate for an abstract concept like culture. Regarding computations, fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning can be used for comparing culture of individuals, making inferences from their values, and modeling stereotypical cultural profiles.
Understanding Culture through Knowledge Cybernetics
Journal of Social and Development Sciences , 2018
These days, countries around the world continue with their process of globalization in the digital business and marketing. However, they find themselves straddling different national cultures, which lead to problems of cross-cultural communication management resulting in, for instance, miscommunication and misunderstanding. Consequently, an understanding of the characterisation or mapping of culture is significant, and while there are not many theories of cultural mapping, most stem from the base work of Hofstede. Basically, most people begin with a categorisation of culture through the creation of an ontology that differentiates relatable levels of reality, as a theory of levels allows culture to be broken down into parts that can be analysed more easily. It also helps them to facilitate the creation of a set of generic or universal dimensions of culture which can be used to map different cultures. However, a problem with this theoretical approach is that it does not offer a very dynamic representation of culture, and it has manifestations that impoverish the way that phenomenal manifestations of culture can be explained. On the other hand, there is an alternative approach was adopted by Schwartz. This approach does not discuss ontology but it creates a value inventory in which respondents assess ‘comprehensive’ cultural values. Consequently, there is some relationship between outcome of Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s results. Yolles has developed a theory of Knowledge Cybernetics that delivers a new ontology and a dynamic modelling approach. Schwartz’s results have been merged into this, resulting in a new theory dynamic theory of culture quite distinct from Hofstede’s level theory.
Towards culturally-aware virtual agent systems
… and models, IGI Global, Hershey PA, 2010
Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Handbook of research on culturally-aware information technology : perspectives and models / Emmanuel Blanchard and Daniele Allard, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: "This book provides readers with the possibility of acquiring indepth knowledge of the theoretical and technological research conducted in IT in relation to culture"-Provided by publisher.
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 2014
Providing opportunities for children to engage with intercultural learning has frequently focused on exposure to the ritual, celebrations and festivals of cultures, with the view that such experiences will result in greater acceptance of cultural differences. Intercultural conflict is often avoided, bringing as it does particular pedagogical, ethical and political dilemmas of which cultures we place in conflict in the multicultural classroom. In this paper we discuss an alternative approach, providing children with an interactive learning experience with synthetic cultures and characters. The agent architecture developed to enable intelligent agents to exhibit culturally appropriate affect and behaviours is outlined. MIXER, an experiential learning application developed for 9-11 year old children on intercultural conflict is described, highlighting the
2020
Military Operations Other Than War, from humanitarian assistance to counterinsurgency support, require actionable cultural intelligence -information that provides understanding of the behavior of a general population and its friendly, neutral, and hostile sub-groups, plus ways to recognize and predict changes in that behavior over time. Cultural intelligence is made actionable through integration with tactical data via the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB) process. Cultural intelligence development and application are poorly supported by existing intelligence systems. This paper explains how a cognitive engineering methodology was used to understand this problem from the analyst's perspective and to develop human-centered technology solutions. Domain and semantic analyses were used to identify the concepts and relationships central to creating and applying cultural intelligence. Cognitive work analysis was then applied to the processes and workflows used in cult...