Longer Version of a Paper That Appears in Aaai Fall Symposium on Knowledge and Action at Social and Organiza- Tional Levels, Social and Psychological Commitments in Multiagent Systems

abstract Commitment is a central concept in Artiicial Intelligence (AI). At least two kinds of commitment can be identiied that have been used in AI|the internal or psychological and the external or social. While the former has been made explicit in AI theory, the latter has often been ignored (though it is given more importance in other disciplines, and indeed even in AI practice). The many roles of social commitment in AI are discussed. It is argued that while social and psychological commitments are related, they must not be connated with each other. In particular, thinking directly in terms of social commitments helps us avoid the infelicities of traditional theories of group action and intention. In the full paper, a formalization of these concepts is also proposed that captures their desired properties and interrelationships.