Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications Carlos Iván Chesñevar cic@cs.uns.edu.ar http://cs.uns.edu.ar/~cic cic Part 5 - Outline Main research projects in argumentation Main conferences in argumentation Some argumentation people (not a full list!) Six challenges in argumentation for the 21st century CONICET and Laboratory of R&D in A.I. Department of Computer Science Universidad Nacional del Sur Bahía Blanca, Argentina Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 2 The ASPIC Project The ASPIC Project http://www.argumentation.org ASPIC developed a common framework to underpin the services that are emerging as core functions of the argumentation paradigm. These include reasoning, decision-making, learning and communication. The end goal is a suite of software components based on this framework and a development platform for integrating ti these components with knowledge (e.g. semantic web) resources and legacy systems. ASPIC provided a sound basis for discussions of technical standards. ASPIC stresses the need to establish a formal foundation to support the creation, deployment and validation of practical argumentation systems and the core components developed using rigorous software engineering techniques. http://www.argumentation.org Several European universities involved Some companies also worked as partners in the ASPIC project Project duration: 2004-2008 Funded by EC Framework V Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 3 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 4 http://www.argugrid.org ArguGRID has developed a new model for building Gridbased applications through the use of multi-agent technologies and argumentation logic to support the formation of dynamic virtual organizations. The key advantage of the approach is simplifying the interactions between service providers and service consumers in a Service-oriented setting supported by P2P technologies. Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 5 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 6
Argumentation Factory Software ArguGRID is developing open source software tools for reasoning about service properties and service composition. PLATON MARGO CaSAPI KDE Algorithms and Software for Industrial Strength Inconsistency Tolerance An EPSRC Funded Project (2007-2010) http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.hunter/projects/af/index.html Leader: Anthony Hunter (University College London, UK). Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 7 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 8 In this project, we want to develop the argumentation factory as a software system that acts as a middle layer (or hub) between: (1) knowledge resources such as available in relational databases, logical knowledgebases, ontologies, and argumentbases (marked up in for example the forthcoming Argument Interchange Format); (2) existing automated theorem proving technology; and (3) diverse applications of agumentation systems such as for decision support, for multi-agent negotiation, for knowledge fusion, and for software requirements engineering. Argumentation Factory - Outline http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.hunter/projects/af/index.html Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 9 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 10 Conferences in argumentation-related areas In the last years, there have been several papers on argumentation-related topics in the top conferences in Artificial Intelligence E.g.: IJCAI (Int. Joint Conf. On Artificial Intelligence) ECAI (European Conf. On Artificial Intelligence) KR (Int. Conf. On Knowledge Representation and Reasoning) ECSQARU (European Conf. On Symbolic and Qualitative Aspects of Reasoning under Uncertainty) etc, etc Since 2004, there has been an International Workshop on Argumentation and Multiagent Systems (ArgMAS). It is held annually within the AAMAS International Conference (Intl. Conf. On Autonomous Agents and Multiagents Systems), and it is published as a volume in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) Series (Springer). http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/irahwan/argmas/argmas08/ Since 2006, there is an International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA). It is held biannually. http://www.comma-conf.org/ Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 11 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 12
Since 2001, there has been an International Workshop on Computational Models of Natural Argument (CMNA). It is held annually within important international conferences (e.g. ECAI, IJCAI, etc.). http://cmna.csc.liv.ac.uk/cmna8/ In January 2008, there has been a prestigious Dagstuhl Seminar on Theory and Practice on Argumentation Systems in Dagstuhl, Germany In 2009, there will be a special technical track on Agreement Technologies in the ACM Intl. Symposium on Applied Computing (March 8-12, 2009, Honolulu, Hawai, USA). http://www.acm.org/conferences/sac/sac2009/ http://www.dagstuhl.de/en/program/calendar/semhp/?semnr=2008042 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 13 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 14 Henry Prakken Lecturer in the Intelligent Systems Group of the computer science department at Utrecht University, Holland. Web: http://people.cs.uu.nl/henry/ : Nonmonotonic reasoning Argumentation and Law AI & Law Argumentation ti theory Phan Minh Dung Professor /Researcher at Asian Institute of Technology Web: www.cs.ait.ac.th/~dung/ Argumentation Theory Knowledge Representation Logic Programming / Nonmonotonic reasoning Gerd Vreeswijk Lecturer in the Intelligent Systems Group of the computer science department at Utrecht University, Holland. Web: http://www.cs.uu.nl/staff/gv.html : Nonmonotonic reasoning Argumentation Game, media, agent technology Developed several implementations ti within the ASPIC project Bart Verheij Researcher at the University of Groningen, Department of Artificial Intelligence Web: http://www.ai.rug.nl/~verheij/ artificial intelligence, logic and law, with emphasis on defeasible argumentation and legal reasoning. Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 15 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 16 Leila Amgoud Research scientist at the French National Research Agency CNRS at IRIT lab of Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse Web: http://www.irit.fr/~leila.amgoud/ Non-monotonic Reasoning Argumentation theory Decision making and practical reasoning Modelling dialogs and negotiation Agent communication languages Coalition formation Francesca Toni Senior Lecturer at Department of Computing, Imperial College London, UK Web: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ft/ Argumentation, Negotiation, Logic-Based Multi-Agent Systems, Inter-Agent Communication, Abduction, Logic Programming for Knowledge Representation and Automated Reasoning, Non-monotonic and Default Reasoning. Iyad Rahwan Lecturer at the Informatics Institute at the British University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates / Honorary Fellow at Univ. of Edimburgh, UK Web: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/irahwan/ Argumentation theory Argumentation and the Web Interest-based Negotiation Carles Sierra Professor at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA- CSIC), Spain. Web: http://http://www.iiia.csic.es/~sierra/ Argumentation, Negotiation, Logic-Based Multi-Agent Systems, Inter-Agent Communication, Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 17 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 18
Trevor Bench-Capon Professor at Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Liverpool, UK Web:http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~tbc/ Advanced Informatics Applied to Law Argumentation and Persuasion Practical Reasoning, Legal Reasoning Ontologies, Knowledge Representation Paul Dunne Professor at Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Liverpool, UK Web:http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ped/ Complexity in Argumentation & Dialogue Coalition Formation Argumentation Theory Tony Hunter Professor at Univ. College London, UK Web:http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~tbc/ Argumentation Theory Knowledge Representation Applications with Scientific Knowledge Chris Reed Professor at Univ. Dundee, Scotland, UK Web: www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/creed/ Argumentation Theory Knowledge Representation Software for representing Argumentation Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 19 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 20 Guillermo Simari Professor at Universidad Nacional del Sur, B.Blanca, Argentina Web:http://www.cs.uns.edu.ar/~cic Argumentation Theory Knowledge Representation & Logic Programming Multiagent systems Belief Revision Six key challenges in argumentation technologies In Nov./Dec. 2007, a special issue of IEEE Intelligent Systems was published, focused on Argumentation Technologies (Eds. I. Rahwan, P. McBurney). That issue includes relevant papers highlighting the applicability of argumentation for solving real-world problems (e.g. medical domains, user support systems, etc.) In the introduction of this special issue, the editors identified some key challenges in argumentation technologies for the coming years Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 21 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 22 Challenge 1: Need for more mature diagrammatic representation of arguments Frameworks and tools for diagrammatic representation of arguments and automatic reasoning on such representations are still in their infancy. Toulmin s model is from 1958, but only recently computer scientists have explored this issue! Challenge 2: Need for engineering frameworks for developing argumentation software Up to now: Some combinations of standard agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) methods, knowledge ellicitation, etc. have been applied. But there is a need to mix theoretical and practical work in argumentation in order to develop more evolved approaches. Such reasoning over argumentation diagrams needs to be automated for the successful deployment of large-scale argumentation systems. Stephen Toulmin (1997) Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 23 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 24
Challenge 3: Need for a better understanding of argumentation protocols and languages The Argument Interchange Format (AIF) is a major step towards automated exchange of arguments between intelligent software agents. Need for developing a deeper understanding of properties of interaction protocols and communication languages. This involves providing answers to questions such as: What protocol should two agents use to undertake a negotiation, and why? Should a negotiation always require the same protocol? Should the protocol depend on the type of negotiation? Challenge 4: Solving the bottleneck of computational representation of arguments This is a strong requirement for the wide deployment and adoption of argumentation systems Possible solution: use of usergenerated content and content annotation. There has been some progress in the development of theoretical and software components (e.g. ArgDF, integrating AIF and Semantic Web issues). Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 25 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 26 Challenge 5: Need for Scalability in argument-based systems If an argumentation system is intended to support millions of people engaged in some deliberation, considerable work is need for scaling up the emerginig applications Systems are needed to organize people s qualitative arguments and the justifications they hold for their views. Challenge 6: Need for Linking between argumentation and other disciplines Links between argumentation and other disciplines need further attention in the 21st century, e.g. qualitative formalisms for representing uncertainty game theory political theory (moving towards e-democracy, e- government, etc.). Organization theory (systems for collaborative work, etc.). Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 27 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 28 Gracias por su atención! Preguntas? END OF PART 5 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 29 Argumentation in Intelligent Agents: Theory and Applications 30