Chatbots For Social Change



"I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, not to hate them, but to understand them."

- Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670 (more quotes)

Chatbots for Social Change is focused on a single aim. That is, to mobilize recent developments in natural language understanding (NLU), in particular Large Language Models (LLMs) like chatGPT, to catalyze effective and responsible large-scale intelligent social action.

This course is about envisioning a future where chatbots can effectively serve as interviewers, discussants, therapists, experts, and politicians, through the ability to explain another's views as they would, to reason and explain reasoning, and symmetrically to look at the world through all of their conversants' eyes.

= Table of Contents =

Section 1: What's Possible?

 * Conversation - How and why people chat; what words do.
 * /Collective Action/ - How and why collectivities act; what peoples do.
 * /Designing Democracy/ - Futurists and utopians, and what chatbots could do.

Section 2: What's Ethical?

 * /Research Project Ideas/ - (Homework) Brainstorm potential research projects
 * /IRB, Research Ethics/ - Understanding the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process.
 * /Conversational AI Ethics/
 * /Implementation Ethics/
 * Choosing a Project - (Homework for next section) Choose a project, and write an IRB proposal.

Section 3: How Do We Do It?

 * /Beliefs/ - Understanding how beliefs are formed and their impact on social behavior.
 * /Redundant Belief Systems/ - Investigating the systems of belief that reinforce themselves and how chat-bots can interact with them.
 * /Formal and Practical Logic/ - What can reason do?

Section 4: Let's Dive into LLMs

 * /Quickstart/ - Understand the basics, run and train your first LLM.
 * /Theory of LLMs/ - An exploration of Large Language Models and their capabilities.
 * /Practicalities of LLMs/ - Handling the practical aspects and limitations of LLMs in real-world applications.

Section 5: Hands-On Projects

 * /Guidelines on Project Sprints/ - How to conduct detailed project sprints focused on creating chatbots aimed at social change.
 * Previous Projects - Some students have chosen to make their investigations public. This can act as a resource and inspiration, and allow that perhaps your efforts in this class extend beyond yourself.

Section 6: Reflecting on Our Journey

 * /Retrospective/ - Looking back on what has been learned and how it can be applied going forward.

Additional Resources

 * /Further Reading/ - Recommended books, articles, and papers for extended learning.
 * /Glossary/ - Definitions of key terms used throughout the course.
 * /FAQ/ - Answers to frequently asked questions regarding chatbots and their role in social change.

Appendices

 * /Sample IRB Proposal/ - A sample proposal for an Institutional Review Board to help learners prepare their own research ethics submissions.
 * /Case Studies/ - Real-world examples of chatbots used for social change.
 * /Interviews with Experts/ - Insights from industry and academic experts on the future of chatbots in social dynamics.
 * /Building on this WikiBook/ - Defines the conventions and processes for contributing to this project.
 * /Literature Review/ - A brief guide to literature review using LLMs

About the Authors

 * /Contributors/ - Information about the creators and contributors to this course.

Feedback

 * /Reviews/ - Reviews and testimonials from past learners and educators.
 * /Contact/ - How to get in touch with the authors or to provide feedback about the course.