论文标题
Alexa，在您里面，我相信！通过智能演讲者在电子商务搜索中的公平性和解释性问题
Alexa, in you, I trust! Fairness and Interpretability Issues in E-commerce Search through Smart Speakers
论文作者
论文摘要
在传统（桌面）电子商务搜索中，客户会发出特定的查询，并且系统按与查询相关的顺序返回了排名的产品列表。电子商务搜索中越来越流行的替代方案是向由语音助手（例如VA，例如Alexa）提供动力的智能扬声器（例如Amazon Echo）发出语音问题。在这种情况下，VA通常仅阐明一种产品的详细信息，以选择原因的原因，以及将产品添加到客户的购物车中的默认操作。在语音搜索期间选择产品时，客户的自主权降低了，这使得VA必须在其解释和默认操作中更加负责和值得信赖。 在本文中，我们询问在亚马逊回声设备上安装的Alexa VA选择产品的解释是否与人类的理解以及对其他传统媒介的观察（例如，桌面电子商务搜索）一致。通过用户调查，我们发现在81％的情况下，用户对“顶部结果”的解释与Alexa的解释不同。在调查默认操作的公平性时，我们观察到，在近68％的情况下，在一组多达1000个查询的情况下，存在一种或多种产品（根据亚马逊自己的桌面搜索结果），而不是Alexa选择的产品。最后，我们进行了30多个查询的调查，该查询与Alexa选择的产品不同于顶级桌面搜索结果，并观察到，在近73％的情况下，参与者更喜欢顶级桌面搜索结果，而不是Alexa选择的产品。我们的结果引起了一些问题，需要对电子商务搜索的VAS相关公平性和解释性问题进行更多讨论。
In traditional (desktop) e-commerce search, a customer issues a specific query and the system returns a ranked list of products in order of relevance to the query. An increasingly popular alternative in e-commerce search is to issue a voice-query to a smart speaker (e.g., Amazon Echo) powered by a voice assistant (VA, e.g., Alexa). In this situation, the VA usually spells out the details of only one product, an explanation citing the reason for its selection, and a default action of adding the product to the customer's cart. This reduced autonomy of the customer in the choice of a product during voice-search makes it necessary for a VA to be far more responsible and trustworthy in its explanation and default action. In this paper, we ask whether the explanation presented for a product selection by the Alexa VA installed on an Amazon Echo device is consistent with human understanding as well as with the observations on other traditional mediums (e.g., desktop ecommerce search). Through a user survey, we find that in 81% cases the interpretation of 'a top result' by the users is different from that of Alexa. While investigating for the fairness of the default action, we observe that over a set of as many as 1000 queries, in nearly 68% cases, there exist one or more products which are more relevant (as per Amazon's own desktop search results) than the product chosen by Alexa. Finally, we conducted a survey over 30 queries for which the Alexa-selected product was different from the top desktop search result, and observed that in nearly 73% cases, the participants preferred the top desktop search result as opposed to the product chosen by Alexa. Our results raise several concerns and necessitates more discussions around the related fairness and interpretability issues of VAs for e-commerce search.
