Rational and robust agents: from decision/market/game theory to quantum theory and AI
Alessio Benavoli, Univeristy of Limerick
2-3pm 23rd May 2019
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) research is revolutionising our lives and leading us to a world with self-driving cars, automated trading on stock exchanges etc.. Such applications require AI methods to be able to make rational choices and make robust decisions. Rationality means that an AI agent is assumed to take account of available information and uncertainty, potential costs and benefits, and to act consistently (logically) in choosing the best action. Robustness in decision making is required to both the known unknowns (the uncertainty in the world about which the agent can reason explicitly) and the unknown unknowns (unmodelled aspects). However, the current methods are not sufficiently suited to address these issues. In this seminar, I will discuss some preliminary ideas on developing, from existing research in decision/market/game theory, a new robust framework for rational decision making. Assessing rationality in infinite spaces is a difficult task: the problem is in general either undecidable or NP-hard. The second part of the seminar will focus on presenting a computable theory of rationality (also called bounded rationality). I will then show that "any" theory of bounded rationality presents entanglement phenomena. The last part of the seminar will focus on how this impacts on quantum theory foundation. Additional info about my research at alessiobenavoli.com