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1. Generating the Gopher’s Grounds: Form, Function, Order, and Alignment

   Zhao, Jiayi ; Kamath, Anshul ; Grisanti, Nick ; Montanez, George D ( January 2023 , Agents and Artificial Intelligence. ICAART 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (vol 13786))

   Rocha, A.P. ; Steels, L. ; van den Herik, J. (Ed.)

   Previous work has shown that artificial agents with the ability to discern function from structure (intention perception) in simple combinatorial machines possess a survival advantage over those that cannot. We seek to examine the strength of the relationship between structure and function in these cases. To do so, we use genetic algorithms to generate simple combinatorial machines (in this case, traps for artificial gophers). Specifically, we generate traps both with and without structure and function, and examine the correlation between trap coherence and lethality, the capacity of genetic algorithms to generate lethal and coherent traps, and the information resources necessary for genetic algorithms to create traps with specified traits. We then use the traps generated by the genetic algorithms to see if artificial agents with intention perception still possess a survival advantage over those that do not. Our findings are two-fold. First, we find that coherence (structure) is much harder to achieve than lethality (function) and that optimizing for one does not beget the other. Second, we find that agents with intention perception do not possess strong survival advantages when faced with traps generated by a genetic algorithm. 

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2. The Gopher Grounds: Testing the Link between Structure and Function in Simple Machines

   https://doi.org/10.5220/0010900900003116  

   Kamath, Anshul ; Zhao, Jiayi ; Grisanti, Nick ; Montanez, George ( January 2022 , Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence)

   Does structure dictate function and can function be reliably inferred from structure? Previous work has shown that an artificial agent’s ability to detect function (e.g., lethality) from structure (e.g., the coherence of traps) can confer measurable survival advantages. We explore the link between structure and function in simple combinatorial machines, using genetic algorithms to generate traps with structure (coherence) and no function (no lethality), generate traps with function and no structure, and generate traps with both structure and function. We explore the characteristics of the algorithmically generated traps, examine the genetic algorithms’ ability to produce structure, function, and their combination, and investigate what resources are needed for the genetic algorithms to reliably succeed at these tasks. We find that producing lethality (function) is easier than producing coherence (structure) and that optimizing for one does not reliably produce the other. 

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3. The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception [The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception]

   https://doi.org/10.5220/0010207502050215  

   Hom, Cynthia ; Maina-Kilaas, Amani ; Ginta, Kevin ; Lay, Cindy ; Montañez, George ( January 2021 , Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence)

   Being able to assess and calculate risks can positively impact an agent’s chances of survival. When other intelligent agents alter environments to create traps, the ability to detect such intended traps (and avoid them) could be life-saving. We investigate whether there are cases for which an agent’s ability to perceive intention through the assessment of environmental artifacts provides a measurable survival advantage. Our agents are virtual gophers assessing a series of room-like environments, which are potentially dangerous traps intended to harm them. Using statistical hypothesis tests based on configuration coherence, the gophers differentiate between designed traps and configurations that are randomly generated and most likely safe, allowing them access to the food contained within them. We find that gophers possessing the ability to perceive intention have significantly better survival outcomes than those without intention perception in most of the cases evaluated. 

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4. The Hero's Dilemma: Survival Advantages of Intention Perception in Virtual Agent Games

   https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619071  

   Maina-Kilaas, Amani R. ; Montanez, George D. ; Hom, Cynthia ; Ginta, Kevin ; Lay, Cindy ( August 2021 , 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG))

   Conjecturing that an agent's ability to perceive the intentions of others can increase its chances of survival, we introduce a simple game, the Hero's Dilemma, which simulates interactions between two virtual agents to investigate whether an agent's ability to detect the intentional stance of a second agent provides a measurable survival advantage. We test whether agents able to make decisions based on the perceived intention of an adversarial agent have advantages over agents without such perception, but who instead rely on a variety of different game-playing strategies. In the game, an agent must decide whether to remain hidden or attack an often more powerful agent based on the perceived intention of the other agent. We compare the survival rates of agents with and without intention perception, and find that intention perception provides significant survival advantages and is the most successful strategy in the majority of situations tested. 

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5. Finite-Sample Bounds for Two-Distribution Hypothesis Tests

   https://doi.org/10.1109/DSAA60987.2023.10302643  

   Hom, Cynthia ; Yik, William ; Montañez, George D. ( October 2023 , 2023 IEEE 10th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA))

   With the rapid growth of large language models, big data, and malicious online attacks, it has become increasingly important to have tools for anomaly detection that can distinguish machine from human, fair from unfair, and dangerous from safe. Prior work has shown that two-distribution (specified complexity) hypothesis tests are useful tools for such tasks, aiding in detecting bias in datasets and providing artificial agents with the ability to recognize artifacts that are likely to have been designed by humans and pose a threat. However, existing work on two-distribution hypothesis tests requires exact values for the specification function, which can often be costly or impossible to compute. In this work, we prove novel finite-sample bounds that allow for two-distribution hypothesis tests with only estimates of required quantities, such as specification function values. Significantly, the resulting bounds do not require knowledge of the true distribution, distinguishing them from traditional p-values. We apply our bounds to detect student cheating on multiple-choice tests, as an example where the exact specification function is unknown. We additionally apply our results to detect representational bias in machine-learning datasets and provide artificial agents with intention perception, showing that our results are consistent with prior work despite only requiring a finite sample of the space. Finally, we discuss additional applications and provide guidance for those applying these bounds to their own work. 

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