Conversing with AI: Interview with Chelsea Wang about Communications with Artificial Intelligence Systems (Part 3 of 3)

In the final part of our conversation, Chelsea Wang explains how her background in psychology has influenced her work in artificial intelligence. In particular, she describes how her social science background helped her develop and deploy her own version of the Mutual Theory of Mind as a psychologist within the field of artificial intelligence. When socializing, humans employ a recursive feedback loop of conceptualization of each other, and she explores the application of similar concepts to conversational AI systems.

She concludes by discussing her journey as a PhD student: what led her to seek her dissertation and her plans afterwards to use what she is learning now to conduct innovative and impactful work in the business world.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

More about Chelsea:

Qiaosi Wang (Chelsea) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Chelsea is a human-centered AI researcher and her PhD dissertation work focuses on building the Mutual Theory of Mind framework, inspired by the basic human capability to surmise what is happening in others’ minds (also known as “Theory of Mind”), to enhance mutual understanding between humans and AIs during human-AI communication. Her work specifically focuses on the human-AI communication process during AI-mediated social interaction in online learning, where AI agents can connect socially isolated online learners by providing personalized social recommendations to online learners based on information extracted from students’ posts on the online class discussion forums.

Chelsea received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Informatics from the University of Washington, Seattle. In her free time, Chelsea loves hiking, playing with her cat, Gouda, and spending time at bouldering gyms. 

To learn more about Chelsea and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

• Her website: http://qiaosiwang.me/
• Her contact information:
  • Email: qswang@gatech.edu
  • Twitter: @qiaosi_wang
• Two relevant papers she published:
  • “Towards Mutual Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction: How Language Reflects What Students Perceive About a Virtual Teaching Assistant”
  • “Mutual Theory of Mind for Human-AI Communication”