Understanding and promoting cooperation

The main aim of this project is to explore methods that will promote cooperation. This is a topic that has recently received attention, for example by Dafoe in 'Open Problems in Cooperative AI'. Many of the problems facing society today (and presumably in the future) are difficult because of barriers to acting jointly. For example how governments need to act together to mitigate climate change. These barriers are issues such as trust, coordination and potential exploitation. The key research objectives are:

1. To develop tools that can model, predict and explain the dynamics of Multi-Agent Systems.

2. To identify and design mechanisms which support cooperation in Multi-Agent Systems.

There are two perspectives of interest - the point of view of a single agent modelling other agents (potential partners or adversaries) and that of a system planner designing an environment to facilitate optimal social outcomes.

To achieve these objectives I expect to incorporate both theoretical and experimental approaches. As a preliminary step I intend to:

1. Construct a model of a social dilemma situation and analyse its features.

2. Investigate how modifications to the environment, such as changing the amount of observable information each agent can obtain, impact the dynamics.

This PhD is relevant to the Artificial intelligence technologies EPSRC research area.