Formal methods for verification in human-agent interaction
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)Alternative title
Formella metoder för verifiering i interaktioner mellan människor och intelligenta agenter (Swedish)
Abstract [en]
Formal verification is essential for ensuring that systems behave according to their mathematical specifications. However, applying formal verification to human-agent interactions presents unique challenges due to the dynamic nature of human mental states and behaviors. Unlike traditional verification tasks, which focus on ensuring correctness in a well-defined action space, this work addresses reasoning over beliefs, intentions, and emotions that evolve through interaction. Two main contributions are introduced: (1) Belief Graphs for modeling mental state dynamics, and (2) the integration of these with formal dialogue games for verifying strategies and influence. To this end, the developed verification methods are rooted in two main pillars: psychological theories formalized to represent mental state dynamics as logical frameworks, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning (NMR) methods, including techniques such as Formal Argumentation and Answer Set Programming (ASP). By modeling mental dynamics as states and transitions in a layer atop the action space—referred to as the Belief Graph methodology—we are provided a tool for modeling context and context dynamics that supports counterfactual, forward and backward reasoning about mental states and behaviors. By incorporating Belief Graphs into formal dialogue games we gain mathematical frameworks for analyzing and verifying agent beliefs, intentions and strategies, thereby enabling the verification of human-agent interactions.Whether it concerns potentially harmful human behaviors—such as malicious activities on social media—or intelligent systems that interact with humans, such as chatbots that are increasingly capable of influencing users’ emotions, thoughts, and decisions—there is an urgent need for formal verification methods to ensure safe and reliable human interactions in digital communication.The proposed methods have been evaluated through formal analysis, case studies, and published peer-reviewed research.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå University, 2025. , p. 262
Series
Report / UMINF, ISSN 0348-0542
Keywords [en]
formal verification, human-agent interaction, non-monotonic reasoning, theory of mind
National Category
Computer Sciences
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-237425ISBN: 978-91-8070-682-7 (print)ISBN: 978-91-8070-683-4 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-237425DiVA, id: diva2:1950795
Public defence
2025-05-05, HUM.D.220, Humanisthuset, Umeå University, Umeå, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
2025-04-142025-04-092025-04-11Bibliographically approved