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Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

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Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#21

Post by nivertech »

light_triad wrote: post #15

Here's a few more definitions of agents: Agents are a coupling of perception, reasoning, and acting with preferences or goals. They prefer some states of the world to other states, and they act to try to achieve the states they prefer most (this book) AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions based on their perceptions and data to produce optimal performance and results. An AI agent senses its envir…

> AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions

this is wrong, it's almost impossible to build a fully-rational (in the Game-Theoretic sense) agent for almost any real life usecase, except some textbook toy problems.

There are many levels of Intelligence/Cognitions for Agents.

Here's an incomplete hierarchy out of my head (the real classification will deserve a whole blog post or a paper):

  - Dumb/NPC/Zero-Intelligence
  - Random/Probabilistic
  - Rule-based / Reflexive
  - Low-Rationality
  - Boundedly-Rational
  - Behavioral (i.e. replicating a recorded behavior of a real-life entity/phenomena)
  - Learning (e.g. using AI/ML or simple statistics)
  - Adaptive (similar to learning agents, but may take different (better) actions in the same situation)
  - [Fully-]Rational / Game-Theoretic
"A rational actor - a perfectly informed individual with infinite computing capacity who maximizes a fixed (non-evolving) exogenous utility function"[1] bears little relation to a human being.[2]

--

[1] Aaron, 1994

[2] Growing Artificial Societies -- Joshua M. Epstein & Robert L. Axtell

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#22

Post by light_triad »

EGreg wrote: post #16
light_triad wrote: post #15

Here's a few more definitions of agents: Agents are a coupling of perception, reasoning, and acting with preferences or goals. They prefer some states of the world to other states, and they act to try to achieve the states they prefer most (this book) AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions based on their perceptions and data to produce optimal performance and results. An AI agent senses its envir…

I am really not sure where agents would ever be better than workflows. Can you give me some examples? Workflows means some organization signed off on what has to be done. Checklists, best practices, etc. Agents on the other hand have a goal and you have no idea or what they’re going to do to achieve it. I think of an agent’s guardrails as essentially a “blacklist” of actions, while a workflow is a “whitelist”. To me,…

AI agents have been most promising for solving fuzzy problems where optimal solutions are intractable, using sequences of approximations instead of more rigid rule-based workflows. Their architecture combines workflows, connectors, and an optimization engine that balances the explore/exploit tradeoff. So far in terms of guardrails, agents only evolve within environments where they have been given the necessary tools.

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#23

Post by f1shy »

bbor wrote: post #10

A) Looks really good, will be checking it out in depth as I get time! Thanks for sharing. B) The endorsements are interesting before you even get to the book; I know all textbooks are marketed, but this seems like quite the concerted effort. For example, take Judea Pearl's quote (an under-appreciated giant): This revised and extended edition of Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents should becom…

Just thank you! :) I came here exactly to ask how this book compares against AIMA. You have done a pretty good job of explaining the main differences.

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#24

Post by UltraSane »

simonw wrote: post #2

Because I collect definitions of "agent", here's the one this book uses: > An agent is something that acts in an environment; it does something. Agents include worms, dogs, thermostats, airplanes, robots, humans, companies, and countries. https://artint.info/3e/html/ArtInt3e.Ch1.S1.html I think of this as the "academic" definition, or sometimes the "thermostat" definition (though maybe I should call it the "worms and…

agent has almost as many definitions as set.

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#25

Post by light_triad »

nivertech wrote: post #21
light_triad wrote: post #15

Here's a few more definitions of agents: Agents are a coupling of perception, reasoning, and acting with preferences or goals. They prefer some states of the world to other states, and they act to try to achieve the states they prefer most (this book) AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions based on their perceptions and data to produce optimal performance and results. An AI agent senses its envir…

> AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions this is wrong, it's almost impossible to build a fully-rational (in the Game-Theoretic sense) agent for almost any real life usecase, except some textbook toy problems. There are many levels of Intelligence/Cognitions for Agents. Here's an incomplete hierarchy out of my head (the real classification will deserve a whole blog post or a paper): - Dumb/NPC/Ze…

More definitions that don't mention rationality:

AI agents are software systems that use AI to pursue goals and complete tasks on behalf of users. They show reasoning, planning, and memory and have a level of autonomy to make decisions, learn, and adapt (Google)

Agents “can be defined in several ways” including both “fully autonomous systems that operate independently over extended periods” and “prescriptive implementations that follow predefined workflows” (Anthropic)

Agents are “automated systems that can independently accomplish tasks on behalf of users” and “LLMs equipped with instructions and tools” (OpenAI)

Agents are “a type of system that can understand and respond to customer inquiries without human intervention” in different categories, ranging from “simple reflex agents” to “utility-based agents” (Salesforce)

A few days ago in TechCrunch: No one knows what the hell an AI agent is

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/14/no-one-knows-what-the-hell...

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#26

Post by nivertech »

nivertech wrote: post #9
simonw wrote: post #2

Because I collect definitions of "agent", here's the one this book uses: > An agent is something that acts in an environment; it does something. Agents include worms, dogs, thermostats, airplanes, robots, humans, companies, and countries. https://artint.info/3e/html/ArtInt3e.Ch1.S1.html I think of this as the "academic" definition, or sometimes the "thermostat" definition (though maybe I should call it the "worms and…

It always amazed me that different branches of CS, AI/ML and Complex Systems/Complexity Sciences have different views on agents. Objects in OOP - something which can have properties/attributes, and methods (verbs/commands). Usually modeled after a real-life/domain enitites. Aggregates in Domain-Driven Design (DDD) - transactional clusters of objects modeling a collections of entities in the domain. Actors in Actor Mo…

Also:

Smart Contracts - agents with an attached cryptocurrency wallet/account/address, capable to receive and make payments autonomously.

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#27

Post by NervousRing »

bbor wrote: post #10

A) Looks really good, will be checking it out in depth as I get time! Thanks for sharing. B) The endorsements are interesting before you even get to the book; I know all textbooks are marketed, but this seems like quite the concerted effort. For example, take Judea Pearl's quote (an under-appreciated giant): This revised and extended edition of Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents should becom…

Hey! Thanks a lot for the detailed review.

So for now, this seems to be a better introductory text?

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#28

Post by sc077y »

simonw wrote: post #2

Because I collect definitions of "agent", here's the one this book uses: > An agent is something that acts in an environment; it does something. Agents include worms, dogs, thermostats, airplanes, robots, humans, companies, and countries. https://artint.info/3e/html/ArtInt3e.Ch1.S1.html I think of this as the "academic" definition, or sometimes the "thermostat" definition (though maybe I should call it the "worms and…

The problem I see with this definition is that we have things called RAG agents which don't technically act in any environment except for provide information.

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#29

Post by 1dom »

sc077y wrote: post #28
simonw wrote: post #2

Because I collect definitions of "agent", here's the one this book uses: > An agent is something that acts in an environment; it does something. Agents include worms, dogs, thermostats, airplanes, robots, humans, companies, and countries. https://artint.info/3e/html/ArtInt3e.Ch1.S1.html I think of this as the "academic" definition, or sometimes the "thermostat" definition (though maybe I should call it the "worms and…

The problem I see with this definition is that we have things called RAG agents which don't technically act in any environment except for provide information.

Is that a problem with the definition of agents, or a problem with sticking the word "agent" on something that doesn't meet the definition of an agent?

Re: Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents

#30

Post by [deleted] »

sc077y wrote: post #28
simonw wrote: post #2

Because I collect definitions of "agent", here's the one this book uses: > An agent is something that acts in an environment; it does something. Agents include worms, dogs, thermostats, airplanes, robots, humans, companies, and countries. https://artint.info/3e/html/ArtInt3e.Ch1.S1.html I think of this as the "academic" definition, or sometimes the "thermostat" definition (though maybe I should call it the "worms and…

The problem I see with this definition is that we have things called RAG agents which don't technically act in any environment except for provide information.

[deleted]
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