What goes into the briefing for an AI avatar?

01Contents

What has to be settled before the first word

An example: a panel at a trade conference, and the moderator turns to the screen. “Albert, braucht die Innenstadt noch Parkplätze?” (Albert, does downtown still need parking?) He says no and addresses the store owner on the panel by name. He made up none of it. The question and the names were in the briefing, and so was his side of the argument.

The AI avatar has already used names from a round of introductions correctly in a live test, but its side of the argument is not something it can pick up there. On stage, it should not have to guess either one.

1. 01

   The topic

   Phrased as a question the panel will not agree on. “Mobility in cities” looks good in the program. “Does downtown still need parking?” is something people can argue about.

2. 02

   The participants

   The name and job title of everyone on stage, including the moderator. We enter the names on the tablet before the event. Live, it has addressed guests correctly by the names from the briefing.

3. 03

   The position

   A direction someone on stage will push back on, for example: downtown can do without parking. “Mobility has many facets” gives it nothing to argue, because nobody disagrees.

02Example

A briefing in seven lines

A panel where Albert takes part as an AI panelist. The event and the people are invented for this page.

• Event: panel at a conference on urban mobility.
• Topic: “Does downtown still need parking?”
• Moderator: Nina Keller, journalist.
• Guests: Peter Huber, city councilor responsible for transportation; Lea Graf, runs a shoe store downtown; Marco Rossi, transportation planner.
• Character: Albert.
• Position: downtown can do without parking. When local businesses warn of fewer customers, Albert pushes back.
• Name: stays Albert, nobody on stage has a similar name.

03Position and stance

The position says what it stands for. The character decides how.

This is how the example might sound on stage, in German there and in translation here. The scene is invented too.

The direction came almost word for word from the briefing. Contradicting directly and putting a claim of his own against hers is what Albert brings himself.

Given the same position, Vera, the skeptic, would have asked first: how many of Ms. Graf’s customers actually arrive by car today?

04The name

When a guest is called Albrecht

If the moderator asks “Herr Albrecht, was sagen Sie dazu?” (Mr. Albrecht, what do you think?), Albert may take it as meant for him and answer, although nobody asked him. He listens for his name, and Albrecht sounds too close.

For this case, you set a different name, and you do it when you choose the character. It should be phonetically distinct and unlike any name on stage. That way it is already in the invitation, and in the briefing it is just one line.

Read the names of the guests aloud, the moderator included, before you settle on the character. Whether two names sound too close is easier to hear than to read.

05Questions

Seven lines, one of them new

• How detailed should the position be?

  One or two sentences. The first sets the direction. The second can say where it should push back, in the example against the businesses that fear losing customers.

• How much work is a briefing?

  The seven lines above. You already have the event, the topic and the guests from your program planning. You copy the character and its name from the invitation, where they already appear. Only the position is new. The briefing only has to reach us by the dress rehearsal. If a guest cancels before then, you change one line.