# Explain Yourself: A Natural Language Interface for Scrutable Autonomous Robots

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.02088 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02088/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 Mar 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Explainable AI: current status and future directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.07045/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous systems in remote locations have a high degree of autonomy and there is a need to explain what they are doing and why in order to increase transparency and maintain trust. Here, we describe a natural language chat interface that enables vehicle behaviour to be queried by the user. We obtain an interpretable model of autonomy through having an expert 'speak out-loud' and provide explanations during a mission. This approach is agnostic to the type of autonomy model and as expert and operator are from the same user-group, we predict that these explanations will align well with the operator's mental model, increase transparency and assist with operator training.