Armen Berjikly

Last updated
Armen Berjikly
Armen-b.png
Born
Los Angeles, CA
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Stanford University, Computer Science (BS)
Stanford University, Management Science (MS)
Occupation(s)CEO & Founder, Kanjoya

CEO & Founder, Experience Project

Senior Director, Ultimate Software
Years active2003-present

Armen Berjikly is an Armenian-American entrepreneur and technologist, known as the founder and chief executive officer of both artificial intelligence company Kanjoya, and social network Experience Project. Berjikly's professional focus is on improving the relationship between technology and human emotions.

Contents

Early life and education

Berjikly was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Northern California to attend Stanford University in 1997. He graduated with honors in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in computer science with an emphasis on human computer interaction, and in 2002 with a master's degree in management science and engineering, with an emphasis on high tech entrepreneurship.

At Stanford, Berjikly was named a Mayfield Fellow, [1] [2] elected to Tau Beta Pi, [3] and earned academic distinctions including the President's Award for Academic Excellence, [4] and the Terman Engineering Scholastic Award. [5]

Berjikly's extracurriculars included writing for the Stanford Daily, [6] [7] and serving as a teaching assistant for Stanford's CS106 and CS107 introductory computer science sequence. [8] However, it was Berjikly's academic research in the then-nascent field of human computer interaction that would most influence his career and personal interests.

Academic research

First working under advisor and natural language processing (NLP) pioneer, Computer Science Professor Terry Winograd, and then directly with HCI authority and Communications Professor Clifford Nass, Berjikly contributed to the corpus around Nass' theory of The Media Equation, particularly with respect to how humans interface with interactive voice response (IVR) systems. [9]

In a foundational experiment on error handling in IVR systems (what to do when the computer does not understand the speaker), Berjikly and Nass tested different strategies for handling errors, hoping to observe any potential impacts to user behavior and impressions from each respective strategy. The results demonstrated that participants strongly preferred IVRs that criticized themselves when making errors (e.g., "Sorry, I didn't understand"), and they strongly disliked systems that blamed the user (e.g., "Please speak more clearly.")

Further, participants were significantly less willing to buy books from systems that blamed the user versus self-blaming systems. In short, they concluded, a company would anger its users and sell fewer products with a user-blaming IVR. One surprising finding was that while users disliked the user-blaming system, they found it to be significantly more competent and believed it made fewer errors than the self-blaming system, despite the reality that the two versions made the same mistakes at the same points in the interaction.

On this point, Berjikly and Nass concluded that

"Modesty undermines your perceived intelligence so much that even insulting the person you are working with makes you seem more competent to that person than criticizing yourself." [10]

Early career, thesis, and Experience Project

After graduating from Stanford, Berjikly took a role at networking technology company, Echelon where he led the product management of a combined hardware and software offering called, Networked Energy Services [11] (NES), a networked energy solution where residential and commercial electricity meters could be read and operated remotely. The product line gained the distinction of being the first networked electricity delivery system to be deployed across an entire country, with Italian utility giant ENEL converting completely to Echelon networked meters and data concentrators. [12] [13]

At this time, a close friend of Berjikly's developed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Berjikly felt that the natural feeling of a loss of hope accompanying any serious medical diagnosis was further accelerated by a dearth of patient-accessible information on current research focused on treating or improving the condition. He created This is MS, as an online forum "chartered on empowering patients through knowledge" for the discussion of research on potential treatments. The site gained a reputation for positivity and insight into new and upcoming treatments. [14] Berjikly observed that, though users were initially drawn by the subject of Multiple Sclerosis, they quickly connected with each other on many other experiences relevant to their lives, with an underlying empathy towards each other through their shared experience of MS. Berjikly noted that, "it gave voice to a group of people known to suffer in silence, and the opportunity to be among new friends, those who truly understood each other's challenges." [15]

This spurred Berjikly to create a generalized version of This is MS, named Experience Project to provide emotional support on any topic. The concept was for users to share the life experiences that mattered to them, and to write stories about their personal experience with those life events, in order to connect with other users who could empathize with them, and provide support based on their shared backgrounds. [16] Berjikly described his inspiration as:

"There are hundreds of people that we pass by each day. Any one of those people could become a very good friend of yours if you knew which person to stop, what questions to ask and you felt comfortable asking and they felt comfortable answering. There is no reason not to use technology to bring us to that point today...A new user to the site searches for something that is of paramount importance to them and realizes, 'I'm not alone with whatever this is. Look at all these other people going through it." [17]

At its peak popularity in 2012, Experience Project was ranked in the top 2500 worldwide websites by internet traffic, [18] and by 2016, members had shared "over 67 million experiences."

Kanjoya

A core aspect of Experience Project was the concept of users describing an experience in their own words, and ascribing what emotions it made them feel to have that experience. Over time, Experience Project created a unique and expansive knowledge base relating how language was used to express feelings, and how that language differed depending on the nature of the experience, demographic of the speaker, geography, date, etc.

This led Berjikly to found Kanjoya, an artificial intelligence company dedicated to the idea that technology could "delivery empathy" through machine learning algorithms capable of accurately recognizing, in real-time, the emotion present in written text. Early applications of Kanjoya's technology included measuring the emotional reaction of audiences during presidential debates, [19] understanding how viewers felt towards Super Bowl advertisements, [20] and analyzing consumer sentiment about the economy in newspaper articles in an attempt to predict future actions of the Federal Reserve Board. [21]

Eventually, Kanjoya focused on understanding employee sentiment in the workplace, through inputs including open-ended surveys and performance reviews. Kanjoya's products addressed employee surveys, [22] diversity and inclusion, [23] and performance reviews.

Kanjoya was acquired by Ultimate Software in 2016, [24] where Berjikly became a Director and stewards the company's future products, including their artificial intelligence strategy. Berjikly's shared his philosophy on the use of advanced technologies like AI in the workplace:

"We crave to be understood with empathy, whether we’re having coffee with a friend, or taking a survey at work. This is where technology has historically fallen incredibly short. Scores of products are designed to improve or understand people and their lives as employees, customers, and so on, yet they have no capability of recognizing, understanding and respecting the qualitative, “left-brain” aspects that actually drive these behaviors." [25]

In 2018, Berjikly began advocating for technology companies, both vendors and consumers, to develop AI Codes of Ethics and Behaviors to actively guide the desired use and boundaries of these advanced technologies, versus passively allowing technology's capabilities alone to determine outcomes.

"There is a great burden ... to help people communicate, build empathy and above all – to help people be heard"

In pursuit of this, Berjikly says the ultimate goal for AI in the workplace is to complement people, while recognizing, respecting and reacting to their emotions- instead of seeking to automate or replace them. [26]

Personal life

Berjikly resides in San Francisco with his wife and children. [27]

Related Research Articles

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated telephone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input with a keypad. In telephony, IVR allows customers to interact with a company's host system via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after which services can be inquired about through the IVR dialogue. IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio to further direct users on how to proceed. IVR systems deployed in the network are sized to handle large call volumes and also used for outbound calling as IVR systems are more intelligent than many predictive dialer systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SRI International</span> American scientific research institute (founded 1946)

SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer rage</span> Anger directed towards a computer

Computer rage refers to negative psychological responses towards a computer due to heightened anger or frustration. Examples of computer rage include cursing or yelling at a computer, slamming or throwing a keyboard or a mouse, and assaulting the computer or monitor with an object or weapon.

In artificial intelligence, an embodied agent, also sometimes referred to as an interface agent, is an intelligent agent that interacts with the environment through a physical body within that environment. Agents that are represented graphically with a body, for example a human or a cartoon animal, are also called embodied agents, although they have only virtual, not physical, embodiment. A branch of artificial intelligence focuses on empowering such agents to interact autonomously with human beings and the environment. Mobile robots are one example of physically embodied agents; Ananova and Microsoft Agent are examples of graphically embodied agents. Embodied conversational agents are embodied agents that are capable of engaging in conversation with one another and with humans employing the same verbal and nonverbal means that humans do.

Affective design describes the design of user interfaces in which emotional information is communicated to the computer from the user in a natural and comfortable way. The computer processes the emotional information and adapts or responds to try to improve the interaction in some way. The notion of affective design emerged from the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), specifically from the developing area of affective computing. Affective design serves an important role in user experience (UX) as it contributes to the improvement of the user's personal condition in relation to the computing system. The goals of affective design focus on providing users with an optimal, proactive experience. Amongst overlap with several fields, applications of affective design include ambient intelligence, human–robot interaction, and video games.

Voice portals are the voice equivalent of web portals, giving access to information through spoken commands and voice responses. Ideally a voice portal could be an access point for any type of information, services, or transactions found on the Internet. Common uses include movie time listings and stock trading. In telecommunications circles, voice portals may be referred to as interactive voice response (IVR) systems, but this term also includes DTMF services. With the emergence of conversational assistants such as Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and Samsung's Bixby, Voice Portals can now be accessed through mobile devices and Far Field voice smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford Nass</span> American academic

Clifford Ivar Nass was a professor of communication at Stanford University, co-creator of The Media Equation theory, and a renowned authority on human-computer interaction (HCI). He was also known for his work on individual differences associated with media multitasking. Nass was the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford and held courtesy appointments in Computer Science, Education, Law, and Sociology. He was also affiliated with the programs in Symbolic Systems and Science, Technology, and Society.

The Mayfield Fellows Program is a university program that offers students in-depth training and experience in high-tech entrepreneurship.

Experience Project was a free social networking website consisting of various online communities. It operated from 2007 until 2016, when it announced it would suspend registrations and enter a read-only mode for an indefinite period.

Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Verplank</span>

William "Bill" Lawrence Verplank is a designer and researcher who focuses on interactions between humans and computers. He is one of the pioneers of interaction design, a field of design that focuses on users and technology, and a term he helped coin in the 1980s. He was previously a visiting scholar at Stanford University's CCRMA and was involved in Stanford's d.school. He also teaches and lectures internationally on interaction design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual assistant</span> Software agent

A virtual assistant (VA) is a software agent that can perform a range of tasks or services for a user based on user input such as commands or questions, including verbal ones. Such technologies often incorporate chatbot capabilities to simulate human conversation, such as via online chat, to facilitate interaction with their users. The interaction may be via text, graphical interface, or voice - as some virtual assistants are able to interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Ng</span> American artificial intelligence researcher

Andrew Yan-Tak Ng is a British-American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Ng was a cofounder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building the company's Artificial Intelligence Group into a team of several thousand people.

Emotions in virtual communication are expressed and understood in a variety of different ways from those in face-to-face interactions. Virtual communication continues to evolve as technological advances emerge that give way to new possibilities in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The lack of typical auditory and visual cues associated with human emotion gives rise to alternative forms of emotional expression that are cohesive with many different virtual environments. Some environments provide only space for text based communication, where emotions can only be expressed using words. More newly developed forms of expression provide users the opportunity to portray their emotions using images.

Affectiva was a software company that built artificial intelligence, acquired by SmartEye in 2021. The company claimed its AI understood human emotions, cognitive states, activities and the objects people use, by analyzing facial and vocal expressions. An offshoot of MIT Media Lab, Affectiva created a new technological category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, namely, Emotion AI.

Computers are social actors (CASA) is a paradigm which states that humans unthinkingly apply the same social heuristics used for human interactions to computers, because they call to mind similar social attributes as humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toutiao</span> Chinese news and information content platform

Toutiao or Jinri Toutiao is a Chinese news and information content platform, a core product of the China-based company ByteDance. By analyzing the features of content, users and users' interaction with content, the company's algorithm models generate a tailored feed list of content for each user.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanjoya</span> American company

Kanjoya was an enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that developed natural language processing (NLP) based artificial intelligence to understand, measure, and improve customer and employee experience. Founded in 2006 by Armen Berjikly, the company was acquired by Ultimate Software in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leila Takayama</span> Human–computer interaction specialist

Leila A. Takayama is an associate professor of Human–computer interaction at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has previously held positions at Google X and Willow Garage. She was elected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2013.

Meta AI is an artificial intelligence laboratory that belongs to Meta Platforms Inc. Meta AI intends to develop various forms of artificial intelligence, improving augmented and artificial reality technologies. Meta AI is an academic research laboratory focused on generating knowledge for the AI community. This is in contrast to Facebook's Applied Machine Learning (AML) team, which focuses on practical applications of its products.

References

  1. ↑ "The Stanford Daily 16 January 2002 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  2. ↑ "Mayfield Fellows Program - Stanford Technology Ventures Program". Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  3. ↑ "Tau Beta Pi - Member Lookup". www.tbp.org. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  4. ↑ "The Stanford Daily 23 September 1998 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  5. ↑ "The Stanford Daily 15 June 2001 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  6. ↑ "The Stanford Daily 11 March 1998 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  7. ↑ "The Stanford Daily 30 September 1998 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  8. ↑ "CS198 Alumni". cs198.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  9. ↑ Ivar., Nass, Clifford (2005). Wired for speech : how voice activates and advances the human-computer relationship. Brave, Scott. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 13,264. ISBN   0262140926. OCLC   57349144.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Ivar., Nass, Clifford (2010). The man who lied to his laptop : what machines teach us about human relationships . Yen, Corina. New York: Current. pp.  51, 52. ISBN   9781617230011. OCLC   548607523.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "About NES | Vision , Mission, History, Community and R&D". www.networkedenergy.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  12. ↑ Clark, Don (2000-05-10). "Echelon and Italy's Enel Reach Accord For Deployment of Network Technology". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  13. ↑ "Echelon Announces New, Long-Term Relationship with Enel S.p.A. | Smart Energy International". www.smart-energy.com. 13 March 2007. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  14. ↑ Stachowiak, Julie (2009). The Multiple Sclerosis Manifesto: Action to Take, Principles to Live By. Demos Medical Publishing. p. 273. ISBN   978-1935281726.
  15. ↑ Pereira, Jorge Manuel Lopes Brandão (11 September 2015). The Contribution of Communication Design as a Strategic Constituent for the Development of Organizations – The Input of Digital Media (Thesis). hdl: 10216/79983 . S2CID   113243275.
  16. ↑ TEDx Talks, When Change is not a Choice: Armen Berjikly at TEDxYerevan , retrieved 2018-12-08
  17. ↑ Whiting, Sam (2008-06-01). "Armen Berjikly connects cat lovers and cancer survivors in his online experience project". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  18. ↑ "Experienceproject.com site ranking history". siterankdata.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  19. ↑ Garvey, Megan (2012-01-21). "What sentiment analysis can and cannot tell us about the GOP race". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  20. ↑ "Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show divides Twitter". LA Times Blogs - Show Tracker. 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  21. ↑ "What's in the News? A New Economic Indicator". 1970-01-01.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. ↑ "Ultimate Acquires Kanjoya: War for Feedback Systems Begins". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  23. ↑ "Tinder, But For Diversity: Can Code Help Silicon Valley Find And Retain Minority Engineers?". International Business Times. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  24. ↑ "Ultimate Software acquires San Francisco company". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  25. ↑ Sharma, Charu (2016-02-15). "Going Against the Flow: Armen Berjikly, CEO of Kanjoya". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  26. ↑ "HR Technology Conference 2017 goes big on AI". SearchHRSoftware. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  27. ↑ "Armen Berjikly (@armenberjikly) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
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