Tartan: A retrieval-based socialbot powered by a dynamic finite-state machine architecture
George Larionov
Zachary Kaden
Hima Varsha Dureddy
G. B. Kalejaiye
Mihir Kale
Srividya Pranavi Potharaju
Ankit Parag Shah
Alexander I. Rudnicky

Abstract
This paper describes the Tartan conversational agent built for the 2018 Alexa Prize Competition. Tartan is a non-goal-oriented socialbot focused around providing users with an engaging and fluent casual conversation. Tartan's key features include an emphasis on structured conversation based on flexible finite-state models and an approach focused on understanding and using conversational acts. To provide engaging conversations, Tartan blends script-like yet dynamic responses with data-based generative and retrieval models. Unique to Tartan is that our dialog manager is modeled as a dynamic Finite State Machine. To our knowledge, no other conversational agent implementation has followed this specific structure.
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