Dialogue and Deliberation

Formal accounts of negotiation tend to invoke the strategic models of conflict which have been impressively developed by game theorists in this half-century. For two decades, however, research on artificial intelligence (AI) has produced a different formal picture of the agent and of the rational deliberations of agents. AI's models are not based simply on intensities of preference and quantities of probability. AI's models consider that agents use language in various ways, that agents use and convey knowledge, that agents plan, search, focus, and argue. Agents can choose their language, apply their knowledge, change their plans, continue their search, shift their focus, and rebut another's arguments. Especially for negotiation practitioners, AI's model may be more helpful than game theory's models inframing situations. AI offers a broader picture of the phenomenon of negotiated agreement, and is descriptive of cooperative phases of settlement. ... Read complete abstract on page 2.