Goal Formation through Interaction in the Situation Calculus: A Formal Account Grounded in Behavioral Science

Goal reasoning has been attracting much attention in AI recently. Here, we consider how an agent changes its goals as a result of interaction with humans and peers. In particular, we draw upon a model developed in Behavioral Science, the Elementary Pragmatic Model (EPM). We show how the EPM principles can be incorporated into a sophisticated theory of goal change based on the Situation Calculus. The resulting logical theory supports agents with a wide variety of relational styles, including some that we may consider irrational or creative. This lays the foundations for building autonomous agents that interact with humans in a rich and realistic way, as required by advanced Human-AI collaboration applications.