Agents
Learning Policy Representations in Multiagent Systems
Grover, Aditya, Al-Shedivat, Maruan, Gupta, Jayesh K., Burda, Yura, Edwards, Harrison
Modeling agent behavior is central to understanding the emergence of complex phenomena in multiagent systems. Prior work in agent modeling has largely been task-specific and driven by hand-engineering domain-specific prior knowledge. We propose a general learning framework for modeling agent behavior in any multiagent system using only a handful of interaction data. Our framework casts agent modeling as a representation learning problem. Consequently, we construct a novel objective inspired by imitation learning and agent identification and design an algorithm for unsupervised learning of representations of agent policies. We demonstrate empirically the utility of the proposed framework in (i) a challenging high-dimensional competitive environment for continuous control and (ii) a cooperative environment for communication, on supervised predictive tasks, unsupervised clustering, and policy optimization using deep reinforcement learning.
Here's who's going to win the World Cup, according to A.I.
Robots aren't playing professional soccer just yet, but they can certainly help predict it! With the FIFA World Cup kicking off, San Francisco-based tech firm Unanimous A.I. has used its considerable artificial intelligence expertise to predict the outcome of the 32-team men's soccer tournament. Given that the startup has previously predicted the Super Bowl results successfully right down to the exact final score, we totally think this is worth taking seriously. "These predictions were generated using swarm A.I. technology," Louis Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Unanimous A.I., told Digital Trends. "This means it uses a unique combination of human insights and artificial intelligence algorithms, resulting in a system that is smarter than the humans or the machines could be on their own. It works by connecting a group of people over the internet using A.I. algorithms, enabling them to think together as a system, and converge upon predictions that are the optimized combination of their individual knowledge, wisdom, instincts, and intuitions."
PeerReview4All: Fair and Accurate Reviewer Assignment in Peer Review
Stelmakh, Ivan, Shah, Nihar B., Singh, Aarti
We consider the problem of automated assignment of papers to reviewers in conference peer review, with a focus on fairness and statistical accuracy. Our fairness objective is to maximize the review quality of the most disadvantaged paper, in contrast to the commonly used objective of maximizing the total quality over all papers. We design an assignment algorithm based on an incremental max-flow procedure that we prove is near-optimally fair. Our statistical accuracy objective is to ensure correct recovery of the papers that should be accepted. We provide a sharp minimax analysis of the accuracy of the peer-review process for a popular objective-score model as well as for a novel subjective-score model that we propose in the paper. Our analysis proves that our proposed assignment algorithm also leads to a near-optimal statistical accuracy. Finally, we design a novel experiment that allows for an objective comparison of various assignment algorithms, and overcomes the inherent difficulty posed by the absence of a ground truth in experiments on peer-review. The results of this experiment corroborate the theoretical guarantees of our algorithm.
Spoiler Alert: This A.I. Startup Already Knows Who's Going to Win the World Cup
The World Cup 2018 has officially begun--which means, if you're a hardcore soccer fan, you're pretty tied up for the next month watching the matches. For those who can't or don't want to follow the action, here's a major spoiler: Germany is going to beat Vegas-favorite Brazil in the final, and Spain and France will round out the tournament's final four teams. That prediction comes courtesy of Unanimous A.I., an artificial intelligence startup that performs a kind of complex crowdsourcing. Founded by scientist and engineer Louis Rosenberg, Unanimous can be used to better understand the nuanced opinions of a population, which makes it useful for tasks like performing market research, diagnosing diseases, or making predictions about the future. Launched in 2014, the company's technology already has an impressive rรฉsumรฉ of accurate forecasts.
Data-Driven Decentralized Optimal Power Flow
Dobbe, Roel, Sondermeijer, Oscar, Fridovich-Keil, David, Arnold, Daniel, Callaway, Duncan, Tomlin, Claire
The implementation of optimal power flow (OPF) methods to perform voltage and power flow regulation in electric networks is generally believed to require communication. We consider distribution systems with multiple controllable Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and present a data-driven approach to learn control policies for each DER to reconstruct and mimic the solution to a centralized OPF problem from solely locally available information. Collectively, all local controllers closely match the centralized OPF solution, providing near-optimal performance and satisfaction of system constraints. A rate distortion framework facilitates the analysis of how well the resulting fully decentralized control policies are able to reconstruct the OPF solution. Our methodology provides a natural extension to decide what buses a DER should communicate with to improve the reconstruction of its individual policy. The method is applied on both single- and three-phase test feeder networks using data from real loads and distributed generators. It provides a framework for Distribution System Operators to efficiently plan and operate the contributions of DERs to active distribution networks.
Talakat: Bullet Hell Generation through Constrained Map-Elites
Khalifa, Ahmed, Lee, Scott, Nealen, Andy, Togelius, Julian
We describe a search-based approach to generating new levels for bullet hell games, which are action games characterized by and requiring avoidance of a very large amount of projectiles. Levels are represented using a domain-specific description language, and search in the space defined by this language is performed by a novel variant of the Map-Elites algorithm which incorporates a feasible- infeasible approach to constraint satisfaction. Simulation-based evaluation is used to gauge the fitness of levels, using an agent based on best-first search. The performance of the agent can be tuned according to the two dimensions of strategy and dexterity, making it possible to search for level configurations that require a specific combination of both. As far as we know, this paper describes the first generator for this game genre, and includes several algorithmic innovations.
A Virtual Environment with Multi-Robot Navigation, Analytics, and Decision Support for Critical Incident Investigation
Smyth, David L., Fennell, James, Abinesh, Sai, Karimi, Nazli B., Glavin, Frank G., Ullah, Ihsan, Drury, Brett, Madden, Michael G.
Accidents and attacks that involve chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear or explosive (CBRNE) substances are rare, but can be of high consequence. Since the investigation of such events is not anybody's routine work, a range of AI techniques can reduce investigators' cognitive load and support decision-making, including: planning the assessment of the scene; ongoing evaluation and updating of risks; control of autonomous vehicles for collecting images and sensor data; reviewing images/videos for items of interest; identification of anomalies; and retrieval of relevant documentation. Because of the rare and high-risk nature of these events, realistic simulations can support the development and evaluation of AI-based tools. We have developed realistic models of CBRNE scenarios and implemented an initial set of tools.
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning with Human Strategies
Nguyen, Thanh, Nguyen, Ngoc Duy, Nahavandi, Saeid
Deep learning has enabled traditional reinforcement learning methods to deal with high-dimensional problems. However, one of the disadvantages of deep reinforcement learning methods is the limited exploration capacity of learning agents. In this paper, we introduce an approach that integrates human strategies to increase the exploration capacity of multiple deep reinforcement learning agents. We also report the development of our own multi-agent environment called Multiple Tank Defence to simulate the proposed approach. The results show the significant performance improvement of multiple agents that have learned cooperatively with human strategies. This implies that there is a critical need for human intellect teamed with machines to solve complex problems. In addition, the success of this simulation indicates that our developed multi-agent environment can be used as a testbed platform to develop and validate other multi-agent control algorithms. Details of the environment implementation can be referred to http://www.deakin.edu.au/~thanhthi/madrl_human.htm
Celcom launches the first Intelligent Virtual Agent in South East Asia using Microsoft A.I Technology - Microsoft Malaysia News Center
KUALA LUMPUR, 1 JUNE 2018 โ Celcom Axiata Berhad, in its ongoing journey to create awesome moments and experiences for its customers, today announced its latest channel to serve customers -- a state-of-the-art Intelligent Virtual Agent service. Celcom's Intelligent Virtual Agent service brings together cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technology, giving birth to two personas โ Clive and Emma โ with their own personalities that will interact with customers 24 7 with regard to their inquiries and transactions. The combination of technology, transaction capability and personality is the first of its kind in Asia. Both Clive and Emma are powered with Microsoft's AI & machine learning technology and will have the opportunity to initiate conversations with consumers with a personal and humanised touch, providing an awesome customer experience anywhere and at any time. Microsoft's Machine Learning feature will allow Clive and Emma to auto-learn questions variations via a knowledge-based system that improves their effectiveness over time.