In Proceedings of Where is the Human? Bridging the Gap Between AI and HCI workshop, in conjunction with CHI ’19, May 4, 2019, Glasgow, UK, 4 pages.
AI techniques are increasingly incorporated into everyday devices and appliances. Explainable AI (XAI) is an approach to improve algorithmic transparency, in which systems explain how they arrive at their decisions. Smart speakers are a specific AI technology that is gaining popularity in the home and is affecting people in their everyday lives. While useful for entertainment purposes and for information queries, studies have also pointed out that people often still experience problems in using this nascent technology. From interviews with smart speakers users, we identified issues people face with their smart speakers and how they go about recovering from these breakdowns. In this position paper, we discuss how smart speakers – as a popular smart device with limited visual feedback – provides an interesting case to investigate how to formally provide explanation support and improve intelligibility.