Value Inference in Sociotechnical Systems: Blue Sky Ideas Track

As artificial agents become increasingly embedded in our society, we must ensure that their behavior aligns with human values. Value alignment entails value inference, the process of identifying values and reasoning about how humans prioritize values. We introduce a holistic framework that connects the technical (AI) components necessary for...

Acquiring Semantic Knowledge for User Model Updates via Human-Agent Alignment Dialogues

For personal assistive technologies to effectively support users, they need a user model that records information about the user, such as their goals, values, and context. Knowledge-based techniques can model the relationships between these concepts, enabling the support agent to act in accordance with the user's values. However, user models...

What values should an agent align with?: An empirical comparison of general and context-specific values

The pursuit of values drives human behavior and promotes cooperation. Existing research is focused on general values (e.g., Schwartz) that transcend contexts. However, context-specific values are necessary to (1) understand human decisions, and (2) engineer intelligent agents that can elicit and align with human values. We propose Axies, a...

Misalignment in Semantic User Model Elicitation via Conversational Agents: A Case Study in Navigation Support for Visually Impaired People

Disabled people can benefit greatly from assistive digital technologies. However, this increased human-machine symbiosis makes it important that systems are personalized and transparent to users. Existing work often uses data-oriented approaches. However, these approaches lack transparency and make it hard to influence the system’s behavior. In...

Discrimination between social groups: The influence of inclusiveness-enhancing mechanisms on trade

The bargaining power of prosumers in a market can vary significantly. Participants can range from industrial participants to powerful and less powerful citizens. Existing trade mechanisms in such markets, e.g., in rural India’s energy trade market, show occurrences of discrimination, exclusion, and unfairness. We study how discrimination...

New Foundations of Ethical Multiagent Systems

Ethics is inherently a multiagent concern. However, research on AI ethics today is dominated by work on individual agents: (1) how an autonomous robot or car may harm or (differentially) benefit people in hypothetical situations (the so-called trolley problems) and (2) how a machine learning algorithm may produce biased decisions or...

New foundations of ethical multiagent systems blue sky ideas track

Ethics is inherently a multiagent concern. However, research on AI ethics today is dominated by work on individual agents: (1) how an autonomous robot or car may harm or (differentially) benefit people in hypothetical situations (the so-called trolley problems) and (2) how a machine learning algorithm may produce biased decisions or...

Improving Confidence in the Estimation of Values and Norms

Autonomous agents (AA) will increasingly be interacting with us in our daily lives. While we want the benefits attached to AAs, it is essential that their behavior is aligned with our values and norms. Hence, an AA will need to estimate the values and norms of the humans it interacts with, which is not a straightforward task when solely...

Deriving norms from actions, values, and context

Personal technology such as electronic partners (e-partners) play an increasing role in our daily lives, and can make an important difference by supporting us in various ways. However, when they offer this support, it is important that they do so with an understanding of our choices and what is important to us. To allow an e-partner to...