Robotic Misdirection, For Good Causes

Deception is a core component of human interaction and reasoning, and despite its negative connotation, it can be used in positive ways. We present our formalization behind strategic deception, one such potentially positive form of deception. We use the Cognitive Event Calculus (CEC) to model strategic deception, building on prior formalizations. First, we provide a brief overview of deception’s definitions within existing literature. Following this discussion, CEC is described and we present CEC-style inference rules for strategic deception. These rules and a positive motivating deception example are used to show how we can solve the problem of strategic deception. This proof is demonstrated both through application of our rules and by adapting our rules for MATR (Machina Arachne Tree-based Reasoner) to show how proving can be performed by automatic reasoners. Finally, we discuss what future steps can be taken with strategic deception.