Intelligent Adaptive Agents and Trust in Virtual and Augmented Reality

Intelligent adaptive agents (IAA) are rapidly evolving due to the sharp growth in computational power and recent advances in artificial intelligence research. From chatbots, over personal virtual assistants and decision-aiding systems, to self-driving systems, they can greatly facilitate common tasks and IAA are increasingly finding their way into many aspects of daily life. However, and often against better knowledge, users remain skeptical towards IAA, in particular when critical interests are involved. Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), with their experiential and immersive character, particularly allow for new ways of interaction and establishing trust between users and IAA. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the research in this PhD project revolves around the fundamental factors and techniques to establish trust in order to facilitate and systemize the design of IAA in future VR/AR settings.