normative electronic partners

03-05-2023

Challenge the future

DelftUniversity ofTechnology

Normative Electronic PartnersAlex Kayal

2Electronic partners

Overview

• What makes an application an electronic partner? Examples involving various software.

• One way of achieving this level of “e-partnership”, using norms.

• Human values and Value Sensitive Design (VSD), one of the motivations behind the concept of electronic partners.

• An example of the development of a real e-partner application


1. What is an electronic partner?An application that moves from merely extending human capabilitiesto forming a partnership with a human.


ePartner vs. non ePartner Siri



Non ePartner siri: do I call Bob’s office or mobile number?



Non ePartner siri: do I call Bob’s office or mobile number?ePartner siri: directly calls Bob’s mobile number.


An ePartner is a broad concept

Henryk F. R. Arciszewski, Tjerk de Greef, J. H. van Delft: Adaptive Automation in a Naval Combat Management System. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A 39(6): 1188-1199 (2009)

http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/pers/hd/a/Arciszewski:Henryk_F=_R=.html

http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/pers/hd/d/Delft:J=_H=_van.html



http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/journals/tsmc/tsmca39.html%23ArciszewskiGD09


2. Achieving electronic partnership

• Last lecture: agents are autonomous, thus the need for organization to achieve an optimal level of performance in a MAS.

• This can be achieved through an Organizational Framework

• One of the elements of an organizational framework is the normative dimension.


What are norms?

• The majority of norms are regulatory statements aimed towards regulating the behavior of people in society.

• This type of norms can be divided into three categories:


Norm types/examples

• Obligations:• You are obliged to pay the price of items you buy from the

supermarket.• You obliged of making way for a faster automobile when

you’re driving on the left lane.


Norm types/examples



you’re driving on the left lane.• Prohibitions:

• You are prohibited from entering your boss’s room when it’s closed.

• You are prohibited from painting graffiti on public buildings.


Norm types/examples



you’re driving on the left lane.• Prohibitions:

• You are prohibited from entering your boss’s room when it’s closed.

• You are prohibited from painting graffiti on public buildings.• Permissions:

• You are permitted to use the library for 24 hours during exam period.

• You are permitted to use the printer down the hall.


Norms in multi-agent systems

• Similarly, norms can be used in agent societies to regulate the behavior of agents, just like they are used in human socieities to regulate human behavior.


How do norms regulate agent behavior?

• Agents are autonomous, driven by goals. Organizational structures (such as norms) aim to regulate agents to prevent chaos and achieve an optimal performance.

• Since agents are autonomous, they still have the choice to comply or violate the norms of the organization.


How do norms regulate agent behavior?

• Example #1: through rewarding and sanctioning agents:

• Agents that comply with norms are rewarded• Agents that violate norms are sanctioned

• Example #2: through aiming to promote user values.


3. User values• To hold a value: is to believe that something, to a certain

degree, is good for you.

• Prominent value surveys: Rokeach (1973) and Schwartz (1994).

• Value Sensitive Design (VSD): accounting for user values during software design process.


4. ePartner for families and children

• A mobile app designed for families with children in “Basisschool” or primary school.

• The goal is to help children stay safe, find new friends, organize playdates, and so on.


User values in our app• Examples of values in our application, using terms from

Rokeach’s survey:

• Family security• Friendship• Independence• Social recognition• Responsibility• …and many more


How do you obtain user values?Stages of the process

• User studies: for example, cultural probes, and focus groups.


How do you obtain user values?Stages of the process


VSD issues

• Often software designs, while trying to fulfill a user value, harm other values in the process.

• Consider a camera surveillance system in an elderly home: it certainly fulfills the value of safety.

• But while it does so, it severely harms the users (elderly) value of privacy and even independence.

• ePartners need to fulfill the intended values of their users while posing minimal risks to others as a side effect.


VSD issues in the domain of our app

• Current apps and gadgets cause value tensions: what are they?


Basic features


Basic features

Can we avoid values tension using only basic features?


Norms and values

• ePartners can solve these issues through using norms.

• Norms offer a flexible, rich way for users to specify their requirements, leading to a better support for intended values (i.e. without posing risk to others). ePartners can reason on whether to comply or violate norms in every occasion, leading to a better support for the values of a group.


Norms and values


Norm-based features


Norm-based features

How does this reflect on user values?

Can we now support intended values without posing risks to others?


Social commitments model


Summary

• ePartners differ from ordinary software in being team-mates to their human users.


Summary


• Norms (obligations, prohibitions, permissions) can be used to regulate the behavior of systems of ePartners.


Summary



• Value-sensitive design aims to account for human values in designing software. But while designs try to promote important user values, they can also harm other values in the process.


Summary



• Value-sensitive design aims to account for human values in designing software. But while designs try to promote important user values, they can also harm other values in the process.

• ePartners, through subscribing to norms, can support human values better than traditional software.