How fast can you stop an AI avatar?

01STOP

The button worked at once. The trouble came after

Once, at the laptop, the moderator tapped STOP in the middle of a running answer. About three tenths of a second later the AI avatar was silent.

Then it started a new answer. While it was still talking, someone had said a sentence with its name in it, and that sentence was still waiting in the queue. Back then, saying “Stopp” (stop) out loud did not count as a signal.

Since then, nothing said before the stop sets it off, not even a sentence with its name. We have not yet tested that block specifically in a live run.

• 334 msuntil it falls silentSTOP on the tablet · lab
• 374 msin a resumed answerSTOP after it had picked up an answer that someone cut into · lab

In the lab and at the laptop alike, every value stayed under four tenths of a second. We still say “under half a second” and keep a margin.

02By voice

At the first “Danke” the AI avatar kept talking for almost five seconds

After that experience, a second way to halt it was added: “Danke” (thanks) with its name. It is the same phrase a moderator uses to close a human guest’s turn.

The first “Danke” came without its name, in the middle of its answer, and it kept talking for almost five seconds. The laptop microphone had picked up the avatar’s own voice, and speech recognition only found the word after finishing the whole sentence. We changed that afterward. The avatar now watches the last few words while the transcript is still being written.

After the change, the moderator said “Danke” and its name into a running answer. Speech recognition merged the avatar’s voice from the speaker and the “Danke” into a single utterance, much like the first time. The avatar still broke off mid-sentence. It was silent about a second after the moderator’s last word.

If the same “Danke” comes only after the answer, the avatar does not take it as a follow-up and stays quiet.

03Questions

Which words make it stop, and what is still open

• Which words make the AI avatar stop?

  “Danke” (German for thanks) with its name, and also its name followed by “stopp” (stop). A “Danke” without its name in the middle of its answer has also stopped it at the laptop. That is an observation, not a signal we recommend to the moderator. After its answer, a “Danke” is not a signal. If the avatar says “danke” itself and the microphone picks it up, that is not supposed to stop it. We have measured the “Danke” with its name live; its name with “stopp” has not come up live during an answer so far.

• How fast does stopping by voice work?

  More slowly than the button. At the laptop, stopping by voice took almost five seconds before the change and about a second afterward. The button works in 334 ms in the lab and in about three tenths of a second live at the laptop.

• Does the AI avatar start talking again on its own after a stop?

  In the lab, the audio did not start up again after STOP. The one restart in a live test came from a sentence with its name that was said before the stop; sentences like that no longer count. A stop also ends the conversation. An “Und warum?” (and why?) from the panel will not bring it back afterward; for that, the moderator calls it by name again or types in a question.

04Why it matters

Why stopping counts for more than response time

If an answer comes a second late, the room hears a short pause. If an answer cannot be cut off, the moderator loses control of the stage.

And the moderator does not have to wait until the room frowns. The AI avatar’s answer is on the tablet before the room hears what it says, usually a good second earlier, and the stop takes less time than that head start.

So at the event, your moderator stops the avatar with the button. The “Danke” with its name works more slowly and depends on how quickly speech recognition picks up the word. It stays a fallback.

If your moderator should still have that fallback, rehearse both at the dress rehearsal on a running answer: STOP once, and once the “Danke” with its name, spoken into the moderator’s microphone. Someone sitting in the hall will hear whether the second silence comes about a second after the “Danke”, as it did at the laptop. If it comes noticeably later, stick with the button for that event.