For access to the US government's secrets, get friendly with an avatar. Millions of Americans need federal security clearance to allow them to gain access to classified information. Putting so many through the screening process is a huge bureaucratic headache. Dean Pollina of the National Center for Credibility Assessment in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, wondered if a virtual interviewer could streamline the process. He and colleague Allison Baretta built a system in which an on-screen avatar with speech-recognition capability asked a series of screening questions, and used this chatbot in recorded interviews with 120 members of the US army.
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