The Many Uses of Multi-Agent Intelligent Systems

In professional cycling, it's well known that a pack of 40 or 50 riders can ride faster and more efficiently than a single rider or small group. As such, you'll often see cycling teams with different goals in a race work together to chase down a breakaway before the finish line. This analogy is one way to think about collaborative multi-agent intelligent systems, which are poised to change the technology landscape for individuals, businesses, and governments, says Dr. Mehdi Dastani, a computer scientist at Utrecht University. The proliferation of these multi-agent systems could lead to significant systemic changes across society in the next decade. "Multi-agent systems are basically a kind of distributed system with sets of software. A set can be very large. They are autonomous, they make their own decisions, they can perceive their environment, "Dastani said.