This book-length article combines several peer reviewed papers and new material to analyze the issues of ethical artificial intelligence (AI). The behavior of future AI systems can be described by mathematical equations, which are adapted to analyze possible unintended AI behaviors and ways that AI designs can avoid them. This article makes the case for utility-maximizing agents and for avoiding infinite sets in agent definitions. It shows how to avoid agent self-delusion using model-based utility functions and how to avoid agents that corrupt their reward generators (sometimes called "perverse instantiation") using utility functions that evaluate outcomes at one point in time from the perspective of humans at a different point in time. It argues that agents can avoid unintended instrumental actions (sometimes called "basic AI drives" or "instrumental goals") by accurately learning human values. This article defines a self-modeling agent framework and shows how it can avoid problems of resource limits, being predicted by other agents, and inconsistency between the agent's utility function and its definition (one version of this problem is sometimes called "motivated value selection"). This article also discusses how future AI will differ from current AI, the politics of AI, and the ultimate use of AI to help understand the nature of the universe and our place in it.

Recently, we see a new type of interfaces for programmers based on web technology. For example, JSFiddle, IPython Notebook and R-studio. Web technology enables cloud-based solutions, embedding in tutorial web pages, atractive rendering of results, web-scale cooperative development, etc. This article describes SWISH, a web front-end for Prolog. A public website exposes SWI-Prolog using SWISH, which is used to run small Prolog programs for demonstration, experimentation and education. We connected SWISH to the ClioPatria semantic web toolkit, where it allows for collaborative development of programs and queries related to a dataset as well as performing maintenance tasks on the running server and we embedded SWISH in the Learn Prolog Now! online Prolog book.

By expressiveness we mean the ability to encode a desired set of two-valued interpretations over a given propositional vocabulary A using only atoms from A. We also compare ADFs' expressiveness with that of (the two-valued semantics of) abstract argumentation frameworks, normal logic programs and propositional logic. While the computational complexity of the two-valued model existence problem for all these languages is (almost) the same, we show that the languages form a neat hierarchy with respect to their expressiveness. We then demonstrate that this hierarchy collapses once we allow to introduce a linear number of new vocabulary elements. We finally also analyse and compare the representational succinctness of ADFs (for two-valued model semantics), that is, their capability to represent two-valued interpretation sets in a space-efficient manner.

Just as there exists varied uses for computational models of narrative, there exists a wide variety of languages aimed at representing stories. A number of them have historic roots in automated generation, for which these languages have to be limited in order to make the generation process computationally feasible. Other are focused on story understanding, with close ties to natural language making many reasoning processes computationally intractable. In this paper, we discuss the trade-off between expressivity and computational complexity of the reasoning process and argue that Impulse, a temporal, modal logic provides more expressivity than languages historically associated with story generation, while still affording reasoning capabilities. We show that these properties enable certain aspects of narrative discourse generation by using two examples from different genres, and claim that this generalizes to a broader class of problems.

We propose a declarative framework for representing and reasoning about truthfulness  of agents using answer set programming. We show how statements by agents can be  evaluated against a set of observations over time equipped with our knowledge about  the actions of the agents and the normal behavior of agents. We illustrate the framework  using examples and discuss possible extensions that need to be considered.

The rich expressivity provided by the cognitive event calculus (CEC) knowledge representation framework allows for reasoning over deeply nested beliefs, desires, intentions, and so on. I put CEC to the test by attempting to model the complex reasoning and deceptive planning used in an episode of the popular television show Breaking Bad. CEC is used to represent the knowledge used by reasoners coming up with plans like the ones devised by the fictional characters I describe. However, it becomes clear that a form of nonmonotonic reasoning is necessary—specifically so that an agent can reason about the nonmonotonic beliefs of another agent. I show how CEC can be augmented to have this ability, and then provide examples detailing how my proposed augmentation enables much of the reasoning used by agents such as the Breaking Bad characters. I close by discussing what sort of reasoning tool would be necessary to implement such nonmonotonic reasoning.

Believability requires video game characters to consider their actions within the context of social norms. Social norms involve a broad range of behavioral defaults, obligations, and injunctions unrelated to strictly causal reasoning.  Defeasible reasoning involves rationally compelling but deductively invalid arguments, such as reasoning with rules that allow exceptions. This paper investigates having video game characters use defeasible reasoning to consider injunctive social norms when selecting and planning actions.

We present Fiascomatic , a mixed initiative system for generating consistent scenarios for the indie storytelling RPG Fiasco . Players can repeatedly generate scenarios, locking down aspects of a scenario they like and regenerating aspects they don’t, until they arrive at a scenario they find entertaining.  It is not a story generation system; it generates scenarios from which players then generate stories.  Nor is it intended to generate optimal scenarios; it generates random scenarios which the players can then curate according to their taste. Fiascomatic presents an interesting intermediate point between non-automated table-top RPGs and fully automated systems such as story generators or autonomous characters.  It is a tool that can be used by Fiasco players to speed the generation of game setups while preserving creative input on the part of the players, and by Fiasco playset authors to make automated playsets.

Standard game tree search algorithms, such as minimax or Monte Carlo Tree Search, assume the existence of an accurate forward model that simulates the effects of actions in the game. Creating such model, however, is a challenge in itself.One cause of the complexity of the task is the gap in level of abstraction between the informal specification of the model and its implementation language. To overcome this issue, we propose a technique for the implementation of forward models that relies on the Answer Set Programming paradigm and on well-established knowledge representation techniques from defeasible reasoning and reasoning about actions and change. We evaluate our approach in the context of Real-Time Strategy games using a collection of StarCraft scenarios.

We introduce Playspecs, an application of omega-regular expressions to specifying play traces (sequences of game states or events unfolding over time). This connects the automated analysis and model checking of games to the literature on formal software verification via Bu ̈chi automata. We show how to define desirable or undesirable sequences of game events with Playspecs and how associated algorithms can find examples (or prove the impossibility) of such sequences. Playspecs have two main benefits over existing techniques for specifying the behaviors of a game over time. First, they offer a scalable commitment to formal modeling: the same Playspecs can filter existing traces gathered by telemetry, search for satisfying traces using existing game code, or drive formal verification when paired with a logical model of a game. Second, Playspecs' syntax can be customized for the game engine or game in question so designers may write specifications using their game's native vocabulary. We define Playspecs' syntax and semantics (modulo gamespecific customizations) and outline algorithms for each of the applications mentioned above, providing examples from the social simulation game Prom Week and the puzzle game engine PuzzleScript.