Elizabeth Arredondo, Giving Robots a Life: Writing Personality and Backstory for AI Assistants. The recent explosion in artificial intelligence has led to a demand for writers who can create the “personalities” that accompany AI tools. As the Washington Post recently put it, “[b]ehind Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana are not just software engineers. Increasingly, there are poets, comedians, fiction writers, and other artistic types charged with engineering the personalities for a fast-growing crop of artificial intelligence tools.” Elizabeth Arredondo is among the small but growing group of writers working at the intersection of creative writing and artificial intelligence. Her talk will cover her real-world experiences developing and user-testing the personality and conversations for a robot wellness coach, including how she leverages her background as a television writer.

Elizabeth Arredondo is a writer working in television and interactive media. After earning her MFA from University of Southern California’s Writing for Screen & Television program, Elizabeth wrote on staff for Cold Case on CBS, and Monstress for HBO Max. In the realm of artificial intelligence, Elizabeth created the personality, backstory, and conversational voice for Mabu, a robotic healthcare coach. Elizabeth further explored the intersection of character creation and artificial intelligence as a Visiting Scholar with mediaX at Stanford University where she developed and moderated a series of panel discussions centered around creating interactions between AI personalities and users.