Three perspectives on conversational AI at CUI ’26

Empathy, metaphor-fluid design, and conversational explanations at the CUI online pre-event.

CHAI Lab presented two full papers and a provocation paper at the CUI 2026 Online Pre-Event on July 15. The work explored empathy in conversational agents, more adaptive metaphors for voice interfaces, and explanations as interactive dialogues. These projects bring together questions about design, mental models, and human-centered AI.