Icebreakers
Supporting Weak-Tie Formation for International Students with Generative Agents
Icebreakers is designed to lower the barrier to initial participation in newly formed groups. For many international students, entering a new social setting involves more than physical presence; it requires navigating silence, uncertainty, and the perceived risk of social or linguistic missteps. To soften this moment, the system introduces two generative agents: a shared facilitator that guides the group with culturally sensitive, progressively deepening prompts, and a personal assistant that provides private support with phrasing, translation, and interpretation. These agents are not intended to speak on users’ behalf; rather, they are designed to make it feel safer and more manageable for individuals to speak for themselves.