# Diplomat: A conversational agent framework for goal-oriented group discussion

**Authors:** Kevin Hogan, Annabelle Baer, James Purtilo  
**arXiv:** [2105.05322](https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.05322)  
**Date:** 2021-05-11  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/arxiv-id/2105.05322v1/

## Abstract

Recent work in human-computer interaction has explored the use of conversational agents as facilitators for group goal-oriented discussions. Inspired by this work and by the apparent lack of tooling available to support it, we created Diplomat, a Python-based framework for building conversational agent facilitators. Diplomat is designed to support simple specification of agent functionality as well as customizable integration with online chat services. We document a preliminary user study we conducted to help inform the design of Diplomat. We also describe the architecture, capabilities, and limitations of our tool, which we have shared on GitHub.