Many real-world games contain parameters which can affect payoffs, action spaces, and information states. For fixed values of the parameters, the game can be solved using standard algorithms. However, in many settings agents must act without knowing the values of the parameters that will be encountered in advance. Often the decisions must be made by a human under time and resource constraints, and it is unrealistic to assume that a human can solve the game in real time. We present a new framework that enables human decision makers to make fast decisions without the aid of real-time solvers. We demonstrate applicability to a variety of situations including settings with multiple players and imperfect information.
It is known that there are uncoupled learning heuristics leading to Nash equilibrium in all finite games. Why should players use such learning heuristics and where could they come from? We show that there is no uncoupled learning heuristic leading to Nash equilibrium in all finite games that a player has an incentive to adopt, that would be evolutionary stable or that could "learn itself". Rather, a player has an incentive to strategically teach such a learning opponent in order secure at least the Stackelberg leader payoff. The impossibility result remains intact when restricted to the classe…
Many real-world domains contain multiple agents behaving strategically with probabilistic transitions and uncertain (potentially infinite) duration. Such settings can be modeled as stochastic games. While algorithms have been developed for solving (i.e., computing a game-theoretic solution concept such as Nash equilibrium) two-player zero-sum stochastic games, research on algorithms for non-zero-sum and multiplayer stochastic games is limited. We present a new algorithm for these settings, which constitutes the first parallel algorithm for multiplayer stochastic games. We present experimental …
We introduce a new solution concept, called periodicity, for selecting optimal strategies in strategic form games. This periodicity solution concept yields new insight into non-trivial games. In mixed strategy strategic form games, periodic solutions yield values for the utility function of each player that are equal to the Nash equilibrium ones. In contrast to the Nash strategies, here the payoffs of each player are robust against what the opponent plays. Sometimes, periodicity strategies yield higher utilities, and sometimes the Nash strategies do, but often the utilities of these two strate…
We study new classes of games, called zero-sum equivalent games and zero-sum equivalent potential games, and prove decomposition theorems involving these classes of games. We say that two games are "strategically equivalent" if, for every player, the payoff differences between two strategies (holding other players' strategies fixed) are identical. A zero-sum equivalent game is a game that is strategically equivalent to a zero-sum game; a zero-sum equivalent potential game is a zero-sum equivalent game that is strategically equivalent to a common interest game. We also call a game "normalized" …
Candogan et al. (2011) provide an orthogonal direct-sum decomposition of finite games into potential, harmonic and nonstrategic components. In this paper we study the issue of decomposing games that are strategically equivalent from a game-theoretical point of view, for instance games obtained via transformations such as duplications of strategies or positive affine mappings of of payoffs. We show the need to define classes of decompositions to achieve commutativity of game transformations and decompositions.
An agent, or a coalition of agents, faces an ethical dilemma between several statements if she is forced to make a conscious choice between which of these statements will be true. This paper proposes to capture ethical dilemmas as a modality in strategic game settings with and without limit on sacrifice and for perfect and imperfect information games. The authors show that the dilemma modality cannot be defined through the earlier proposed blameworthiness modality. The main technical result is a sound and complete axiomatization of the properties of this modality with sacrifice in games with p…
From Images to Connections: Can DQN with GNNs learn the Strategic Game of Hex?
TU Darmstadt(达姆施塔特工业大学);Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI)(黑森人工智能中心);Centre for Cognitive Science, TU Darmstadt(达姆施塔特工业大学认知科学中心);German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)(德国人工智能研究中心)
Constructive proof of the existence of Nash Equilibrium in a finite strategic game with sequentially locally non-constant payoff functions by Sperner's lemma
In this paper we survey various notions of anonymity and symmetry for finite strategic-form games present in relevant literature, and discuss notions of fairness; show that game bijections and game isomorphisms form groupoids; introduce matchings as a convenient characterisation of strategy triviality; and outline how to construct and partially order parameterised (symmetric) games with examples that range all combinations of surveyed symmetry notions, which when combined with other results in this paper gives the precise relationship between the various symmetry notions.
We consider the task of computing an approximation of a trembling hand perfect equilibrium for an n-player game in strategic form, n >= 3. We show that this task is complete for the complexity class FIXP_a. In particular, the task is polynomial time equivalent to the task of computing an approximation of a Nash equilibrium in strategic form games with three (or more) players.
Decision making in modern large-scale and complex systems such as communication networks, smart electricity grids, and cyber-physical systems motivate novel game-theoretic approaches. This paper investigates big strategic (non-cooperative) games where a finite number of individual players each have a large number of continuous decision variables and input data points. Such high-dimensional decision spaces and big data sets lead to computational challenges, relating to efforts in non-linear optimization scaling up to large systems of variables. In addition to these computational challenges, rea…
The article considers strategies of coalitions that are based on intelligence information about moves of some of the other agents. The main technical result is a sound and complete logical system that describes the interplay between coalition power modality with intelligence and distributed knowledge modality in games with imperfect information.
We provide a compositional coalgebraic semantics for strategic games. In our framework, like in the semantics of functional programming languages, coalgebras represent the observable behaviour of systems derived from the behaviour of the parts over an unobservable state space. We use coalgebras to describe and program stage games, finitely and potentially infinitely repeated hierarchical or parallel games with imperfect and incomplete information based on deterministic, non-deterministic or probabilistic decisions of learning agents in possibly endogenous networks. Our framework is composition…
This paper studies strategic decentralization in binary choice composite network congestion games. A player decentralizes if she lets some autonomous agents to decide respectively how to send different parts of her stock from the origin to the destination. This paper shows that, with convex, strictly increasing and differentiable arc cost functions, an atomic splittable player always has an optimal unilateral decentralization strategy. Besides, unilateral decentralization gives her the same advantage as being the leader in a Stackelberg congestion game. Finally, unilateral decentralization of …
We introduce a game-theoretic approach to the study of recommendation systems with strategic content providers. Such systems should be fair and stable. Showing that traditional approaches fail to satisfy these requirements, we propose the Shapley mediator. We show that the Shapley mediator fulfills the fairness and stability requirements, runs in linear time, and is the only economically efficient mechanism satisfying these properties.
A Machine Learning Approach to Detect Strategic Behavior from Large-Population Observational Data Applied to Game Mode Prediction on a Team-Based Video Game
There are multiple notions of coalitional responsibility. The focus of this paper is on the blameworthiness defined through the principle of alternative possibilities: a coalition is blamable for a statement if the statement is true, but the coalition had a strategy to prevent it. The main technical result is a sound and complete bimodal logical system that describes properties of blameworthiness in one-shot games.
Strategic interactions between competitive entities are generally considered from the perspective of complete revelation of benefits achieved from those interactions, in the form of public payoff functions and/or beliefs, in the announced games. However, there exist strategic interplays between competitors where the players have a choice to strategise under the availability of private payoffs, in similar competitive settings. In this contribution, we propose a formal framework for a competitive ecosystem where each player is permitted to defect from publicly optimal strategies under certain pr…
The article introduces a notion of a stochastic game with failure states and proposes two logical systems with modality "coalition has a strategy to transition to a non-failure state with a given probability while achieving a given goal." The logical properties of this modality depend on whether the modal language allows the empty coalition. The main technical results are a completeness theorem for a logical system with the empty coalition, a strong completeness theorem for the logical system without the empty coalition, and an incompleteness theorem which shows that there is no strongly compl…
IRIT(图卢兹计算机研究所);CNRS(法国国家科学研究中心);University of Toulouse(图卢兹大学)
We study the strategic aspects of social influence in a society of agents linked by a trust network, introducing a new class of games called games of influence. A game of influence is an infinite repeated game with incomplete information in which, at each stage of interaction, an agent can make her opinions visible (public) or invisible (private) in order to influence other agents' opinions. The influence process is mediated by a trust network, as we assume that the opinion of a given agent is only affected by the opinions of those agents that she considers trustworthy (i.e., the agents in the…
University of British Columbia(英属哥伦比亚大学);Claremont McKenna College(克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院)
A coalition is blameable for an outcome if the coalition had a strategy to prevent it. It has been previously suggested that the cost of prevention, or the cost of sacrifice, can be used to measure the degree of blameworthiness. The paper adopts this approach and proposes a modal logical system for reasoning about the degree of blameworthiness. The main technical result is a completeness theorem for the proposed system.
We consider a partially asymmetric multi-players zero-sum game with two strategic variables. All but one players have the same payoff functions, and one player (Player $n$) does not. Two strategic variables are $t_i$'s and $s_i$'s for each player $i$. Mainly we will show the following results. 1) The equilibrium when all players choose $t_i$'s is equivalent to the equilibrium when all but one players choose $t_i$'s and Player $n$ chooses $s_n$ as their strategic variables. 2) The equilibrium when all players choose $s_i$'s is equivalent to the equilibrium when all but one players choose $s_i$'…
This paper considers a class of reinforcement-learning that belongs to the family of Learning Automata and provides a stochastic-stability analysis in strategic-form games. For this class of dynamics, convergence to pure Nash equilibria has been demonstrated only for the fine class of potential games. Prior work primarily provides convergence properties of the dynamics through stochastic approximations, where the asymptotic behavior can be associated with the limit points of an ordinary-differential equation (ODE). However, analyzing global convergence through the ODE-approximation requires th…
Private blockchain is driving the creation of business networks, resulting in the creation of new value or new business models to the enterprises participating in the network. Such business networks form when enterprises come together to derive value through a network which is greater than the value that can be derived solely by any single company. This results in a setting that combines both competitive and cooperative behavior, and which we call strategic coopetition. Traditionally, cooperative and competitive behavior have been analyzed separately in game theory. In this article, we provide…