A Game-Theoretic Analysis of the Off-Switch Game

The off-switch game is a game theoretic model of a highly intelligent robot interacting with a human. In the original paper by Hadfield-Menell et al. (2016), the analysis is not fully game-theoretic as the human is modelled as an irrational player, and the robot's best action is only calculated under unrealistic normality and soft-max assumptions. In this paper, we make the analysis fully game theoretic, by modelling the human as a rational player with a random utility function. As a consequence, we are able to easily calculate the robot's best action for arbitrary belief and irrationality assumptions

Classification by decomposition: a novel approach to classification of symmetric 2×2 games

In this paper, we provide a detailed review of previous classifications of 2×2 games and suggest a mathematically simple way to classify the symmetric 2×2 games based on a decomposition of the payoff matrix into a cooperative and a zero-sum part. We argue that differences in the interaction between the parts is what makes games interesting in different ways. Our claim is supported by evolutionary computer experiments and findings in previous literature. In addition, we provide a method for using a stereographic projection to create a compact 2-d representation of the game space.Open access funding provided by Stockholm University

Klassificering genom dekomposition : En partitionering av mängden av symmetriska 2X2 spel

Game theory is the study of strategic interaction between rational agents. The need for understanding interaction arises in many different fields, such as: economics, psychology, philosophy, computer science and biology. The purpose of game theory is to analyse the outcomes and strategies of these interactions, in mathematical models called games. Some of these games have stood out from the rest, e.g. Prisoner's Dilemma, Chicken and Stag Hunt. These games, commonly referred to as the standard games, have attracted interest from many fields of research. In order to understand why these games are interesting and how they differ from each other and other games, many have attempted to sort games into interestingly different classes. In this thesis some already existing classifications are reviewed based on their mathematical structure and how well justified they are. Emphasis is put on mathematical simplicity because it makes the classification more generalisable to larger game spaces. From this review we conclude that none of the classifications captures both of these aspects. We therefore propose a classification of symmetric 2x2 games based on decomposition. We show that our proposed method captures everything that the previous classifications caputure. Our method arguably explains the interesting differences between the games, and we justify this claim by computer experiments. Moreover it has a simple mathematical structure. We also provide some results concerning the size of different game spaces