Counterfactual Reasoning for Causal Responsibility Attribution in Probabilistic Multi-Agent Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mu, Chunyan, Najib, Muhammad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Mu, Chunyan
Najib, Muhammad
author_facet Mu, Chunyan
Najib, Muhammad
contents Responsibility allocation -- determining the extent to which agents are accountable for outcomes -- is a fundamental challenge in the design and analysis of multi-agent systems. In this work, we model such systems as concurrent stochastic multi-player games and introduce a notion of retrospective (backward) counterfactual responsibility, which quantifies an agent's accountability for outcomes resulting from a given strategy profile. To allocate responsibility among agents, we utilise the Shapley value and formally show that this method satisfies key desirable properties, including fairness and consistency. Building on this foundation, we propose a formal framework that supports both verification and strategic reasoning in responsibility-aware multi-agent systems. Furthermore, by adopting Nash equilibrium as the solution concept, we demonstrate how to compute stable strategy profiles in which agents trade off responsibility against expected reward.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_13077
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Counterfactual Reasoning for Causal Responsibility Attribution in Probabilistic Multi-Agent Systems
Mu, Chunyan
Najib, Muhammad
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Responsibility allocation -- determining the extent to which agents are accountable for outcomes -- is a fundamental challenge in the design and analysis of multi-agent systems. In this work, we model such systems as concurrent stochastic multi-player games and introduce a notion of retrospective (backward) counterfactual responsibility, which quantifies an agent's accountability for outcomes resulting from a given strategy profile. To allocate responsibility among agents, we utilise the Shapley value and formally show that this method satisfies key desirable properties, including fairness and consistency. Building on this foundation, we propose a formal framework that supports both verification and strategic reasoning in responsibility-aware multi-agent systems. Furthermore, by adopting Nash equilibrium as the solution concept, we demonstrate how to compute stable strategy profiles in which agents trade off responsibility against expected reward.
title Counterfactual Reasoning for Causal Responsibility Attribution in Probabilistic Multi-Agent Systems
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13077