Emergent deception and skepticism via theory of mind

Lion Schulz, Nitay Alon, Jeffrey Rosenschein, Peter Dayan

Keywords: theory of mind, deception, skepticism, multi-agent reinforcement learning, information theory, communication, IPOMDP

TL;DR: Theory of mind and pure reward-maximisation give rise to deception and skepticism - which we measure using information theory

Abstract: In complex situations involving communication, agents might attempt to mask their intentions, exploiting Shannon's theory of information as a theory of misinformation. Here, we introduce and analyze a simple multiagent reinforcement learning task where a buyer sends signals to a seller via its actions, and in which both agents are endowed with a recursive theory of mind. We show that this theory of mind, coupled with pure reward-maximization, gives rise to agents that selectively distort messages and become skeptical towards one another. Using information theory to analyze these interactions, we show how savvy buyers reduce mutual information between their preferences and actions, and how suspicious sellers learn to reinterpret or discard buyers' signals in a strategic manner.

Submission Number: 13