Multiagent Systems with Peter Stone

Multiagent systems involve the interaction of autonomous agents that may be acting independently or in collaboration with each other. Examples of these systems include financial markets, robot soccer matches, and automated warehouses. Today’s guest Peter Stone is a professor of computer science who specializies in multiagent systems and robotics.

In this episode, we discuss some of the canonical problems of multiagent systems, which have some overlap with the canonical problems of distributed systems–for example, the problems of coordinating between different agents with varying levels of trust resembles the problem of establishing consistency across servers in a database cluster.

Peter has recently contributed to the 100 year study of artificial intelligence, so we also had a chance to discuss the opportunities and roadblocks for AI in the near future. And since Peter teaches computer science at my alma mater, UT Austin, I had to ask him a few questions about the curriculum.