1. Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents
August 2004
Chapter 25: Challenges and Extensions
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents – Munindar P. Singh and Michael N. Huhns, Wiley, 2005
© Singh & Huhns

2. Highlights of this Chapter
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents
August 2004
Highlights of this Chapter
Trust
Ethics
Coherence
Benevolence
Managing Privacy
Key Challenges and Recommendations
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns
© Singh & 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
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

4. Ethical Abstractions Deontological ethics Teleological ethics
Consequentialism
Duties
Obligations
Applying ethics
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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.
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

20. Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents
August 2004
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
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns
© Singh & Huhns

21. Benevolence: “A Mattress in the Road”
Who will stop to pick it up?
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
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
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns

24. Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents
August 2004
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?
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns
© Singh & Huhns

25. Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents
August 2004
To Probe Further
Journals
IEEE Internet Computing,
Journal of Web Semantics
IEEE Transactions on Services Computing
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)
Chapter 25
Service-Oriented Computing: Semantics, Processes, Agents - Munindar Singh and Michael Huhns
© Singh & Huhns