Chapter 25: Challenges and Extensions

1. Chapter 25:Challenges and Extensions Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents– Munindar P. Singh and Michael N. Huhns, Wiley, 2005

2. Highlights of this Chapter • Trust • Ethics • Coherence • Benevolence • Managing Privacy • Key Challenges and Recommendations Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

3. When Would you Trust a Service? • Has the right capabilities • Understands your needs • Follows legal contracts where specified • Supports its organization or society • Follows an ethics • Behaves rationally Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

4. Ethical Abstractions • Deontological ethics • Teleological ethics • Consequentialism • Duties • Obligations • Applying ethics Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

5. Motivation Specifying agents who would act appropriately • Distinguishing right from wrong • Relates to legal, social, economic considerations Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

6. Right and Good • Right: that which is right in itself • Good: that which is good or valuable for someone or for some end Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

7. Deontological vs. Teleological • Deontological theories • Right trumps good • Being good does not mean being right • Ends do not justify means • Teleological theories • Good trumps right • Something is right only if it maximizes the good • Ends justify means Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

8. Deontological Theories • Constraints • Negatively formulated • Narrowly framed • E.g., lying is not not-telling-the-truth • Narrowly directed • At an agent’s specific action and its explicitly identified consequences • Not at the action by other means • Not at implicit, even known, consequences Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

9. Deontological Double Effect Distinguish intentional effects from foreseen consequences • An action is not wrong unless the agent explicitly intends for it to do wrong • Legitimizes inaction even when inaction has predictable (but unintended) effects • Shut down bank ATM for diagnostics even if that might leave someone without cash Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

10. Kant’s Categorical Imperative • Universalizability: Acceptable outcomes if everyone applies the same “maxim” • False promising is unacceptable, because if everyone did so, society would not function • Respect for others (no lying or coercion) so they can consent • An agent “maxim” is uncertainly inferred from its actions Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

11. Teleological Theories • Based on how actions satisfy various goals, not their intrinsic rightness • Comparison-based • Preference-based Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

12. Consequentialism An agent should promote whatever values it adopts • Actions are instrumental in the promotion • Honor the values only if doing so promotes them Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

13. Utilitarianism A moral action is one that is useful • Must be good for someone • Good may be interpreted as • Pleasure: hedonism • Preference satisfaction: microeconomic rationalism (assumes each agent knows its preferences) • Interest satisfaction: welfare utilitarianism • Aesthetic ideals: ideal utilitarianism Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

14. Prima Facie Duties • What agents need to decide actions are • Not just universal principles (each can be stretched) • Not just consequences • But also a regard for their promises and duties • Agents have prima facie duties to help others, keep promises, repay kindness,... • No ranking among these • Highly defeasible conclusions, e.g., steal food to feed kids Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

15. Obligations Obligations are • For deontological theories, those that are impermissible to omit • For teleological theories, those that most promote good • For contract-based theories, those that an agent accepts Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

16. Asimov’s Laws of Robotics 0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. [Added after the following more famous laws] 1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

17. Applying Ethics: 1 The ethical theories are theories • Of justification • Not of deliberation • An agent can decide what basic “value system” to use under any approach Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

18. Applying Ethics: 2 • The deontological theories (“right”) • Are narrower • Ignore practical considerations • But are meant as incomplete constraints (out of all the right actions, the agent can choose any) • The teleological theories (“good”) • Are broader • Include practical considerations • But leave fewer options for the agent, who must always choose the best available alternative Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

19. Applying Ethics: 3 • The ethical approaches • Are single-agent in orientation • Implicitly encode other agents • An explicitly multiagent ethics would be an interesting topic for study Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

20. An Agent Should Act • Benevolently • Seeking the welfare of others • Rationally, i.e., maximizing utility • Consistent with its model of itself • Predictably • Consistent with its model of others’ beliefs about it Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

21. Benevolence: “A Mattress in the Road” Who will stop to pick it up? Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

22. Example: Information Sharing • Benevolent agents sharing information they have retrieved, filtered, and refined • Utilitarian variant: Access to shared information based on contributions to it Collective Store World Wide Web... Query Agents Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

23. Challenges and Recommendations Respect autonomy and heterogeneity • Design rules for ontologies, business transactions, protocols, organizations, … • Security and trust: difficult given openness • Scalability • Quality of service: application-specific and incorporating user needs • User-centered requirements analysis and design Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

24. Chapter 25 Summary • SOC is about building systems in open environments • SOC systems rely upon trust among components and people • Technical work on trust: in progress • Can ethics inspire abstractions for SOC? • More responsive to human needs? • Easier to govern? Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

25. To Probe Further • Journals • IEEE Internet Computing, http://computer.org/internet • Journal of Web Semantics • IEEE Transactions on Services Computing • DAI-List-Request@engr.sc.edu • Conferences • Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems • Business Process Managment • Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) • Service-Oriented Computing (ICSOC) • Service Computing (SCC) • Web Services (ICWS) • World-Wide Web (WWW) Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns