ip Report 83 20 The Utility of Level Effort . Stanford Jeffrey S. Singh Mar 1983 II

Meta-level control, in an Artificial Intelligence system, can provide increased capabilities and improved performanct. This improvement, however, is achieved at the cost of the meta-level effort itself. To ensure an overall increase in system efficiency, the savings brought about at the base level cannot be exceeded by the effort at the meta-level. This paper outlines a formalization of the costs involved in choosing between independent problem-solving methods: the cost of meta-level control is explicitly included. It is shown that when meta-level effort is related to its efficacy, there exists an amount of this effort that should optimally be expended. Too much or too little meta -le-,e1 effort can result in a loss of overall system performance.