[comp.ai] IJCAI WS on Reasoning in Adv. Dom.

chris@starbase.mitre.com (Chris Elsaesser) (03/16/91)

Call for participation:

IJCAI-91 WORKSHOP  ON REASONING IN ADVERSARIAL DOMAINS
Sunday, August 25, 1991

Workshop Description:

Any domain involving multiple, independent agents who have goals that
cannot be fully and concurrently satisfied, where there is some incentive
for the agents not to cooperate, is potentially adversarial.  Examples
include economic or political competition, legal disputes, labor or hostage
negotiation, battle management, and zero-sum games. The ability to reason
in adversarial domains is one requirement for AI to advance from problem
solving on the shop floor to decision making in the executive office.

Adversarial reasoning, like single-agent and multi-agent planning, may be
viewed as attempting to deal with goal conflicts.  One of the contributions
of the AAAI-90 Workshop on Reasoning in Adversarial Domains was a
characterization of goal conflict on a scale of utility correlation.
Techniques for dealing with conflict on the positive end of that scale, in
single-agent planning and multi-agent coordination, may be necessary in
certain adversarial domains that encompass a significant component of
planning (e.g., battle management).  But planning techniques alone are not
adequate in domains where an adversary is actively persuing inconsistent
goals.  At the opposite end of the goal-conflict spectrum, the mini-max
strategy used in two-player, zero-sum games requires extension in
situations where there is no obvious move-countermove protocol.  Mini-max
also is too limited if finding cooperative solutions might yield greater
expected utility.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the requirements of, and
techniques for reasoning in adversarial domains when a pure mini-max
strategy is not applicable.  Of particular interest are techniques that have
heretofore not received much attention in the AI literature, such as
partial goal achievement or goal relaxation, such as is required for
successful negotiation.  Reasoning about the intentions and beliefs in
adversarial contexts are of interest, with the planning of deceptions a
possible topic of discussion.  Researchers in the areas of game theory,
computer game playing, multi-agent planning, legal reasoning, negotiation,
and relevant application research will be invited to discuss issues such
as: modeling an agent's beliefs, use of decision-theoretic techniques,
protocols for accounting for an adversary, and formal representation of
adversarial domains.  In addition, we intend to review progress made in
adversarial reasoning applications.

Requirements for invitation:

Please mail 4 copies of a paper or extended abstract to the Workshop chair.
Include an e-mail address of the main point of contact.  

Submissions will be reviewed for relevance to the topic of the workshop.
Several participants will be invited to present short briefings on their
work or to participate on discussion panels.  The committee regrets that
there will not be enough time for all participants to make presentations.  


Deadline dates:

-April 30 for the submission of papers/extended abstracts to workshop
 chair.

-June 1 - invitation to participate in workshop sent to successful
applicants along with a workshop registration form.  Participants must
register for both the conference and the workshop

-revised paper/extended abstract in by June 30

-workshop registration form and the $US65.00 fee from participants to be
received by IJCAI no later than July 15

Publication of results:

All the accepted submissions will be duplicated and provided to each
participant.  It is the policy of IJCAI that workshop notes are not to be
cited.  Therefore, inclusion of a paper will not count as "published
elsewhere" if it is later submitted to a conference or journal.

A summary of the workshop will be published in AI Magazine.

Location: 

IJCAI Workshops will be held on the Market campus, University of
Technology, Sydney which is about 500 meters from Darling Harbour and
accessible by the monorail.


Preliminary Agenda:

	Note:  the agenda will be modified to reflect the interests of
	participants, as indicated by their submissions.

8:30-9:00       Introductory remarks by committee
9:00-10:30      Applications of reasoning in adversarial domains
10:30-10:45     Break
10:45-12:00     Theoretical issues in reasoning about adversarial domains
12:00-1:00      Lunch
1:00-2:30       Negotiation, Trade-offs, and Goal Relaxation
2:30-2:45       Break
2:45-4:00       Modeling beliefs of an adversary
4:00-5:00       Discussion and Wrap-up

Organizing Committee:

Christopher Elsaesser (chair)		Paul E. Lehner
AI Technical Center			Dept. of Systems Engineering
Mail stop W429				5 Central Module
The MITRE Corporation			George Mason University
7525 Colshire Drive			4400 University Drive
McLean, VA  22102-3481			Fairfax, VA  22030-4444
Phone:  (703) 883-6563			Phone: (703) 323-4355
elsaesser@starbase.mitre.org		plehner@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
FAX:  (703) 883-6435

Katia Sycara				Jeff Rosenschein
The Robotics Institute			Ross Building
Wean Hall				Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon University		Hebrew University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890		Givat Ram, Jerusalem
katia@isl.ri.cmu.edu			Israel
					Phone: 011-972-2-585-353
					jeff@humus.huji.ac.il

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