Title: Game Theory for AI Agents

Speaker: Vincent Conitzer, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract: As agentic AI systems are deployed, they will increasingly interact with each other.  Game theory is the study of entities that interact while pursuing their own objectives.  But AI agents are not like humans or groups of humans.  Their memories can be wiped, multiple copies of them can be spun up, they can be run in simulation, and their source code can be analyzed.  In principle, the framework of game theory is flexible enough to accommodate all these aspects; but historically, the game theory community has not focused on them, and some of the relevant work has taken place in philosophy.  I will discuss our work on these topics, with a focus on enabling AI agents to be cooperative in ways that humans cannot.  (No previous background in game theory required.)

Speaker bio: Vincent Conitzer is Professor of Computer Science (with affiliate/courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Philosophy, and the Tepper School of Business) at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL). He is also Head of Technical AI Engagement at the Institute for Ethics in AI, and Professor of Computer Science and Philosophy, at the University of Oxford.

Previous to joining CMU, Conitzer was the Kimberly J. Jenkins Distinguished University Professor of New Technologies and Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He received Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. (2003) degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and an A.B. (2001) degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

Conitzer has received the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award, the Social Choice and Welfare Prize, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, an NSF CAREER award, the inaugural Victor Lesser dissertation award, an honorable mention for the ACM dissertation award, and several awards for papers and service at the AAAI and AAMAS conferences. He has also been named a Guggenheim Fellow, a Sloan Fellow, a Kavli Fellow, a Bass Fellow, an ACM Fellow, a AAAI Fellow, and one of AI's Ten to Watch. He has served as program and/or general chair of the AAAI, AAMAS, AIES, COMSOC, and EC conferences. Conitzer and Preston McAfee were the founding Editors-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation (TEAC). With Jana Schaich Borg and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, he authored "Moral AI: And How We Get There" (2024).

There will be refreshments before the colloquium at 2:15pm outside of LL2.224