The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception

Cynthia Hom, Amani Maina-Kilaas, Kevin Ginta, Cindy Lay, George Montañez

2021

Abstract

Being able to assess and calculate risks can positively impact an agent’s chances of survival. When other intelligent agents alter environments to create traps, the ability to detect such intended traps (and avoid them) could be life-saving. We investigate whether there are cases for which an agent’s ability to perceive intention through the assessment of environmental artifacts provides a measurable survival advantage. Our agents are virtual gophers assessing a series of room-like environments, which are potentially dangerous traps intended to harm them. Using statistical hypothesis tests based on configuration coherence, the gophers differentiate between designed traps and configurations that are randomly generated and most likely safe, allowing them access to the food contained within them. We find that gophers possessing the ability to perceive intention have significantly better survival outcomes than those without intention perception in most of the cases evaluated.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Hom C., Maina-Kilaas A., Ginta K., Lay C. and Montañez G. (2021). The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception.In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 1: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-484-8, pages 205-215. DOI: 10.5220/0010207502050215

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart21,
author={Cynthia Hom and Amani Maina-Kilaas and Kevin Ginta and Cindy Lay and George Montañez},
title={The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 1: ICAART,},
year={2021},
pages={205-215},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010207502050215},
isbn={978-989-758-484-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 1: ICAART,
TI - The Gopher’s Gambit: Survival Advantages of Artifact-based Intention Perception
SN - 978-989-758-484-8
AU - Hom C.
AU - Maina-Kilaas A.
AU - Ginta K.
AU - Lay C.
AU - Montañez G.
PY - 2021
SP - 205
EP - 215
DO - 10.5220/0010207502050215