Robust Norm Emergence by Revealing and Reasoning about Context: Socially Intelligent Agents for Enhancing Privacy

Robust Norm Emergence by Revealing and Reasoning about Context: Socially Intelligent Agents for Enhancing Privacy

Nirav Ajmeri, Hui Guo, Pradeep K. Murukannaiah, Munindar P. Singh

Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Norms describe the social architecture of a society and govern the interactions of its member agents. It may be appropriate for an agent to deviate from a norm; the deviation being indicative of a specialized norm applying under a specific context. Existing approaches for norm emergence assume simplified interactions wherein deviations are negatively sanctioned. We investigate via simulation the benefits of enriched interactions where deviating agents share selected elements of their contexts. We find that as a result (1) the norms are learned better with fewer sanctions, indicating improved social cohesion; and (2) the agents are better able to satisfy their individual goals. These results are robust under societies of varying sizes and characteristics reflecting pragmatic, considerate, and selfish agents.
Keywords:
Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems: Normative systems
Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems: Agent-Based Simulation and Emergence