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Emergent responsible autonomy in multi-agent systems

Emergent responsible autonomy in multi-agent systems
Emergent responsible autonomy in multi-agent systems

Autonomous agents operating in multi-agent environments, face the dilemma of responsibility where they must choose between actions that are individually beneficial versus those that are considered responsible and ethical. Current approaches address this problem either using external reinforcements, or intrinsic notions of ethics that act as constraints overriding the agents' rational choice. Both of these approaches become difficult to scale across complex, dynamic situations, where the responsibility dilemma has to be resolved dynamically. Thus, there is a need to design models of agency, where a sense of ethics and responsibility are an integral part of the agent model and not in conflict with agents' self-interest dynamics. Towards this end, this thesis proposes a model called Computational Transcendence (CT) in which, an agent's “sense of self” is made elastic, that enables it to dynamically identify with external elements of its environment like other agents, communities and concepts. Agents continue to act rationally, working towards utility maximisation, but their utility is determined by their sense of self formed from their elastic identities. We show that this leads to emergence of responsible autonomy, in various multi-agent network conditions.

Autonomy, Identity, Multi-Agent Systems, Responsible AI
3029-3031
International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS)
Deshmukh, Jayati
5903b0c1-b4d1-4fbf-b687-610d4fde3990
Deshmukh, Jayati
5903b0c1-b4d1-4fbf-b687-610d4fde3990

Deshmukh, Jayati (2023) Emergent responsible autonomy in multi-agent systems. In AAMAS '23: Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS). pp. 3029-3031 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Autonomous agents operating in multi-agent environments, face the dilemma of responsibility where they must choose between actions that are individually beneficial versus those that are considered responsible and ethical. Current approaches address this problem either using external reinforcements, or intrinsic notions of ethics that act as constraints overriding the agents' rational choice. Both of these approaches become difficult to scale across complex, dynamic situations, where the responsibility dilemma has to be resolved dynamically. Thus, there is a need to design models of agency, where a sense of ethics and responsibility are an integral part of the agent model and not in conflict with agents' self-interest dynamics. Towards this end, this thesis proposes a model called Computational Transcendence (CT) in which, an agent's “sense of self” is made elastic, that enables it to dynamically identify with external elements of its environment like other agents, communities and concepts. Agents continue to act rationally, working towards utility maximisation, but their utility is determined by their sense of self formed from their elastic identities. We show that this leads to emergence of responsible autonomy, in various multi-agent network conditions.

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More information

Published date: 30 May 2023
Venue - Dates: 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2023, , London, United Kingdom, 2023-05-29 - 2023-06-02
Keywords: Autonomy, Identity, Multi-Agent Systems, Responsible AI

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 492742
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/492742
PURE UUID: b6f4abd1-6584-41d2-833c-4283bc46994d
ORCID for Jayati Deshmukh: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1144-2635

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Aug 2024 16:43
Last modified: 14 Aug 2024 02:10

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Contributors

Author: Jayati Deshmukh ORCID iD

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