Mixed-Initiative Systems for Collaborative Problem Solving

Mixed-initiative systems are a popular approach to building intelligent systems that can collaborate naturally and effectively with people. But true collaborative behavior requires an agent to possess a number of capabilities, including reasoning, communication, planning, execution, and learning. We describe an integrated approach to the design and implementation of a collaborative problem-solving assistant based on a formal theory of joint activity and a declarative representation of tasks. This approach builds on prior work by us and by others on mixed-initiative dialogue and planning systems. We've all had the bad experience of working with someone who had to be told everything he or she needed to do (or worse, we had to do it for them).