Dialogue Game Protocol Research Articles

A Dialogue Game Protocol for Multi-Agent Argument over Proposals for Action

We present the syntax and semantics for a multi-agent dialogue game protocol which permits argument over proposals for action. The protocol, called the Persuasive Argument for Multiple Agents (PARMA) Protocol, embodies an earlier theory by the authors of persuasion over action which enables participants to rationally propose, attack, and defend, an action or course of actions (or inaction). We present an outline of both an axiomatic and a denotational semantics, and discuss implementation of the protocol, in the context of both human and artificial agents.

A Dialogue Game Protocol for Agent Purchase Negotiations

We propose a dialogue game protocol for purchase negotiation dialogues which identifies appropriate speech acts, defines constraints on their utterances, and specifies the different sub-tasks agents need to perform in order to engage in dialogues according to this protocol. Our formalism combines a dialogue game similar to those in the philosophy of argumentation with a model of rational consumer purchase decision behaviour adopted from marketing theory. In addition to the dialogue game protocol, we present a portfolio of decision mechanisms for the participating agents engaged in the dialogue and use these to provide our formalism with an operational semantics. We show that these decision mechanisms are sufficient to generate automated purchase decision dialogues between autonomous software agents interacting according to our proposed dialogue game protocol.

A Geometric Semantics for Dialogue Game Protocols for Autonomous Agent Interactions

Formal dialogue games studied by philosophers since the time of Aristotle have recently found application in Artificial Intelligence as the basis for protocols for interactions between autonomous software agents. For instance, game protocols have been proposed for agent dialogues involving team formation, persuasion, negotiation and deliberation. There is yet, however, no formal, mathematical theory of dialogue game protocols with which to compare two protocols or to study their formal properties. In this paper,11Partly funded by the EU IST Programme through the Sustainable Lifecycles in Information Ecosystems (SLIE) Project (IST-1999–10948) and by the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through a PhD studentship. We are also grateful for comments from the anonymous referees, the audience at the GETCO-2001 workshop in Aalborg, Mark Johnson and Grant Malcolm. we present preliminary work towards such a theory, in which we develop a geometric semantics for these protocols and, with it, define a notion of equivalence between two protocols. We then demonstrate an algebraic property of protocol equivalence, and use this to show the non-equivalence of two similar generic protocols. We also explore the relationship between finite and infinite dialogues, motivated by the Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé games of model theory. Our results have implications for the design and evaluation of agent dialogue-game protocols.