Symposium at the AAAI 2023 Fall Symposium Series

Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, VA, USA
October 25-27, 2023

About the symposium

This symposium focuses on agent teaming in mixed-motive situations that arise naturally when agents have different goals, incentives, and decision-making processes. Such multi-party interactions are common in various settings, ranging from organizational group decision-making to online social networks. In this symposium, we consider an “agent” to be either a goal-directed computational agent, whether embodied or not, or a human. Agents may be tempted to prioritize their individual interests over the long-term success of the group, leading to competition, cooperation, coordination, or indifference towards different subgroups. To navigate these dynamics, agents need to understand the goals and intentions of others, identify potential allies or adversaries, align their values with others, and carefully manage information sharing between allies and adversaries. Additionally, when humans and computational AI agents collaborate in mixed teams, additional complexities arise, including issues of language comprehension, decision-making transparency, and social cue interpretation.

We aim to bring together experts and researchers from various research communities with diverse backgrounds (multi-agent/multi-robot systems, human-agent/robot interaction, artificial intelligence, organizational behavior, etc.,) to discuss the key challenges in agent teaming within mixed-motive situations:

  • How should agents take actions, given that actions reveal information to both allies and adversaries?
  • How can agents actively align their values with their teammates or take actions to align the values of their teammates with theirs?
  • How can agents identify allies, adversaries, or other non-cooperative agents and model subteams and subteam motives within the mixed-motive scenario?
  • What kinds of representations best enable mixed-motive interactions?
  • How can agents assess the intent and proficiency of other agents?
  • How can agents assess the degree of cooperation by other agents?
  • How should agents communicate with cooperative and non-cooperative teammates?

Symposium format

The symposium is in-person and will include invited keynote talks, panels, breakout discussions, talks by authors of accepted papers, and poster sessions.

Keynote Speakers

  • Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati (Arizona State University)

  • Prof. Gita Sukthankar (University of Central Florida)
    Prof. Gita Sukthankar

  • Dr. Marc Steinberg (Office of Naval Research)

Confirmed Panelists (to be updated)

  • Dr. Marc Steinberg (Office of Naval Research)
  • Prof. Matthew Taylor (University of Alberta)
  • Prof. Missy Cummings (George Mason University)
  • Dr. Samantha Dubrow (MITRE)
  • Dr. Laura Hiatt (Naval Research Lab)

Call for Papers

The symposium invites submissions related (but not limited) to the following topics in mixed-motive situations involving computational AI agents (AI-AI/human-AI interactions).

  • Strategies for proficiency communication with allies and adversaries
  • Strategies for controlled deception (hiding information from adversaries but sharing information with allies)
  • Methods for explicit and implicit proficiency communication
  • Methods for goal alignment through goal and intention communication
  • Coalition formation among agents.
  • Strategies for negotiation and consensus
  • Assessment of proficiency of self and other agents
  • Assessment of goals, intentions of self, and other agents
  • Identification of allies, adversaries, or other non-cooperative agents
  • Identification and modeling of subteams and subteam goals/intentions
  • Metrics for assessment of proficiency, degree of cooperation, and other related team measures

Submissions

Please submit one of the following types of submissions via the AAAI FSS-23 EasyChair site.
– Regular papers (6 pages + references)
– Position papers (2 pages + references)
– Summary of previously published papers (2 pages)
The submission format is the standard double-column AAAI Proceedings Style. Submissions need not be anonymized.

We do accept non-archival parallel submissions, i.e., papers submitted to other venues can still be submitted to the symposium but will not be included in the symposium proceedings.

Registration details and additional information can be found at the AAAI Fall Symposium Series website.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: August 17, 2023 August 25, 2023 (Submissions closed)

Paper notifications: August 30, 2023 September 1, 2023

Camera-ready submission: September 15, 2023

Symposium Dates: October 25-27, 2023

Publication and Attendance

For those interested, accepted papers will be published by AAAI as part of the AAAI Fall Symposium Series.  All accepted papers will be presented at the workshop both as short talks and as posters. At least one of the authors of an accepted paper should be registered to attend the symposium in person.

Schedule (To be updated)

Day 1 – 10/25
Session 19:00 – 9:15 amWelcome and Introductions
9:15 – 9:30 amShort talk by organizers
9:30 – 10:30 amPaper presentations – 1
10:30 – 11:00 amCoffee Break
Session 211:00 – 12:00 pmInvited Keynote: Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati
12:00 – 12.30 pmPaper presentations – 2
12.30 – 2:00 pmLunch Break
Session 32:00 pm – 3:30 pmPaper presentations – 3
3:30 – 4:00 pmCoffee Break
Session 44:00 – 5:30 pmPanel 1
6:00 – 7:00 pmAAAI Reception
Day 2 – 10/26
Session 59:00 – 10:00 amInvited Keynote: Prof. Gita Sukthankar
10:00 – 10:30 amPaper presentations – 4
10:30 – 11:00 amCoffee Break
Session 611:00 – 12:30 pmPoster session
12.30 – 2:00 pmLunch
Session 72:00 – 3:30 pmPanel 2
3:30 – 4:00 pmCoffee Break
Session 84:00 – 5:30 pmBreakout group discussion and report – 1
6:00 – 7:00 pmAAAI Plenary session
Day 3 – 10/27
Session 99:00 – 10:00Invited ONR Talk: Dr. Marc
10:00 – 10:30Invited Talk: Prof. Jean Oh
10:30 – 11:00Coffee Break
Session 1011:00 – 12:00 pmBreakout group discussion and report – 2
12:00 – 12:30 pmClosing Remarks

Organizing Committee

  • Suresh Kumaar Jayaraman (Carnegie Mellon University),
  • Jacob Crandall (Brigham Young University), 
  • Jiaoyang Li (Carnegie Mellon University),
  • Gordon Briggs (Naval Research Laboratory),
  • Aaron Steinfeld (Carnegie Mellon University),
  • Michael A. Goodrich (Brigham Young University),
  • Reid Simmons (Carnegie Mellon University),
  • Holly Yanco (University of Massachusetts Lowell).

    Contact: Suresh Kumaar Jayaraman (email: sureshkj@andrew.cmu.edu)

Acknowledgment

The organizational effort is supported under the SUCCESS MURI, a project funded by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-18-1-2503).