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Conversation Chronicles
Towards Diverse Temporal and Relational Dynamics in Multi-Session Conversations
Proceedings of EMNLP 2023
Abstract
In the field of natural language processing, open-domain chatbots have emerged as an important research topic. However, a major limitation of existing open-domain chatbot research is its singular focus on short single-session dialogue, neglecting the potential need for understanding contextual information in multiple consecutive sessions that precede an ongoing dialogue. Among the elements that compose the context in multi-session conversation settings, the time intervals between sessions and the relationships between speakers would be particularly important. Despite their importance, current research efforts have not sufficiently addressed these dialogical components. In this paper, we introduce a new 1M multi-session dialogue dataset, called Conversation Chronicles, for implementing a long-term conversation setup in which time intervals and fine-grained speaker relationships are incorporated. Following recent works, we exploit a large language model to produce the data. The extensive human evaluation shows that dialogue episodes in Conversation Chronicles reflect those properties while maintaining coherent and consistent interactions across all the sessions. We also propose a dialogue model, called ReBot, which consists of chronological summarization and dialogue generation modules using only around 630M parameters. When trained on Conversation Chronicles, ReBot demonstrates long-term context understanding with a high human engagement score.
Examples
• An ablation study example about relational dynamics
I think my salary is too low for my workload.
What do you mean?
I started a new project these days. So I work overtime a lot, but I don’t think the compensation is appropriate.
Have you talked to your boss about it?
No, not yet. Honey, what do you think I should do?
Well, you should definitely talk to your boss and explain your situation. Maybe they can give you a raise.
I think my salary is too low for my workload.
I understand where you’re coming from, but we need to be realistic about our budget. Can you give me some specific examples of why you feel that way?
As you know, I’ve been assigned a new project and the workload has doubled. I work a lot of overtime, but I think my salary is low.
I see your point, but we also have to consider the company’s financial situation.
Then can you give me a bonus if the project ends successfully?
That’s a good idea. Let’s discuss it further and see if we can come up with a solution that works for both of us.
• An example of shifts in relationships
Actually, I’ve been thinking about it since my last injury, but now I’m going to retire as an athlete and live a new life.
Thank you. I will probably take coaching training for a year, and I am planning to be a fulltime coach after that. It would be meaningful to meet each other as a coach later on.
That sounds like a great plan. I wish you all the best in your coaching career, Athlete.
Hey, I finished my training course and finally became a full-time coach like you!
That’s great news! I knew you had it in you.
Thank you! As I became an official coach, I’d like to learn what I need to know as a coach, could you tell me?
Exactly. As a coach, you need to understand your players and their motivations. You need to be able to connect with them on a deeper level and help them reach their full potential.
Thank you! I will be a coach who can raise the potential of the players like you!
I have no doubt that you will. Just remember to stay true to yourself and your values as a coach, and always lead by example.
• Example of dialogue about relational dynamics
My stomach hurts so much and I have a fever since yesterday, so much fever that I’m having a hard time.
I’m sorry to hear that. How long have you been experiencing these symptoms?
It suddenly started hurting last night. Can you prescribe me a suitable medicine?
Yes, I can prescribe you some antacids to help with the pain and fever. Have you taken any over-the-counter medication?
My stomach hurts so much and I have a fever since yesterday, so much fever that I’m having a hard time.
Oh no, that sounds terrible. Have you seen a doctor yet?
No, I’ve never seen a doctor. Can you prescribe me a suitable medicine?
Of course, I can prescribe you some antacids to help with the pain and fever. But you should also try to rest and drink plenty of fluids.
• An example of dialogue between ReBot and a user over multiple time intervals
Why don’t we go the beach in front of our school?
Wow, it’s already vacation! I had a lot of fun this semester.
I can’t believe I’m graduating already. Thank you so much, teacher.
What’s the most memorable memory you had with us?
Oh, that’s a tough one. I think the most memorable memory was when we all went to the beach together.
Yes, it was fantastic. It’s a really old memory.
Speaking of old memories, do you remember when you went on vacation a few years ago?
• An ablation study example about temporal dynamics
Honey, where would be a good place for our honeymoon?
Hmm, I’m not sure. Where are you thinking?
I’m thinking of Hawaii as an option. What do you think?
Hawaii sounds amazing! I’ve always wanted to go there.
Me too, honey. It’s our honeymoon in a few months. Shall we check the tickets and accommodation?
Yes, let’s do that right away. I can’t wait to spend some quality time with you in paradise.
How long did we prepare for this trip to Hawaii?
We’ve been planning it for months now. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for our special day.
How long did we prepare for this trip to Hawaii?
We’ve been looking at flights, hotels, and activities for a long time
Acknowledgement
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BibTeX
@inproceedings{jang-etal-2023-conversation,
title = "Conversation Chronicles: Towards Diverse Temporal and Relational Dynamics in Multi-Session Conversations",
author = "Jang, Jihyoung and
Boo, Minseong and
Kim, Hyounghun",
editor = "Bouamor, Houda and
Pino, Juan and
Bali, Kalika",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing",
month = dec,
year = "2023",
address = "Singapore",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2023.emnlp-main.838",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2023.emnlp-main.838",
pages = "13584--13606",
}