The Role of Environments in Affording Deceptive Behaviour: Some Preliminary Insights from Stage Magic

Abstract

Drawing on an ecological perspective, we contend that research into deception in AI needs to consider not only the cognitive structures of would-be deceptive agents but also the nature of the environments in which they act. To illustrate this approach, we report work-in-progress to design a game called MindTrails, played between a software agent and a human opponent, that is informed by the principles of stage magic to embed deceptive possibilities into its game world. MindTrails is intended to have well-defined elements and rules, while being complex enough to afford a rich range of deceptive behaviours. In this way, it allows us to more precisely articulate some of the deceptive principles..