Join the upcoming meeting of AfP's Digital Peacebuilding Community of Practice on Tuesday, October 19th at 11:00am ET!

The key to learning any new skill is practice. However, in the world of dialogue, we rarely have the resources to do more than tell people what to do. Chatbots are a new innovation that facilitates the practice of dialogue skills at scale for an affordable price.

This presentation will cover:

• What is a chatbot, and how does it work?

• A demonstration of a sample chatbot.

• The chatbot development process.

• Advantages and challenges of chatbots.

• How to know if a chatbot is right for you and your organization.

About the presenter:

Dr. Karin Tamerius is a political psychiatrist and the founder of Smart Politics, a nonprofit that teaches progressives how to communicate more productively and persuasively with conservatives. As part of this effort, she has pioneered the use of chatbots that simulate dialogues between people who disagree. Her first foray into this area was an “Angry Uncle Bot” for the New York Times that taught readers how to discuss politics without destroying the 2018 and 2019 holidays. After that, she consulted on development of the “Cli-Mate” Bot for the David Suzuki Foundation to improve conversations about climate change. Most recently, Dr. Tamerius developed a motivational interviewing chatbot for the New York Times to teach readers how to talk with people who are hesitant about getting the COVID vaccine. The bot is currently being distributed by Kaiser to millions of vaccinated patients in the hope they will engage more productively with family members who are reluctant to get vaccinated. She is currently working on a second motivational interviewing chatbot to teach people how to talk with loved ones who believe vaccine conspiracies.