This article gives an overview of current research on animated pedagogical agents at the Center for Advanced Research in Technology for Education (CARTE) at the University of Southern California/Information Sciences Institute. Animated pedagogical agents, nicknamed guidebots, interact with learners to help keep learning activities on track. They combine the pedagogical expertise of intelligent tutoring systems with the interpersonal interaction capabilities of embodied conversational characters. They can support the acquisition of team skills as well as skills performed alone by individuals. At CARTE, we have been developing guidebots that help learners acquire a variety of problem-solving skills in virtual worlds, in multimedia environments, and on the web.

Adele's record-breaking album 25 is coming to Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services tomorrow (or right now if you happen to reading from New Zealand or Australia). While there are other artists who are absent from most music subscription services--Prince and Neil Young come to mind--Adele's 25 is a unique for two reasons: First, it's the best-selling album since 2001, when music sales began their epic collapse. Secondly, 25 has not been made available on any streaming service until now. Other big name recent albums have either limited their release to certain services (Tidal, more often than not) or delayed their streaming debut all together, but these windows and exclusives typically don't last seven months. While the subscription services are undoubtedly thrilled to finally offer Adele's latest, the stunning success she achieved without their help doesn't bode well for the streaming music model.