Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies advance, the possibility of developing virtual agents capable of mimicking human beings is increasing. Furthermore, AI techniques applicable to mimicking certain features of a specific person (e.g., facial expression, voice, motion) are becoming more sophisticated. Although the HCI community has explored how to design or develop AI agents mimicking a real person, limited studies on mimicking someone’s text-based behavior shown in the instant messaging exist. This study investigates the features that make users perceive text-based agents as people they know in reality. On top of the previous efforts of designing human-like virtual agents, our work suggests design guidelines for applying the persona of the real person (PRP) to text-based agents.