Diffusion-Model-Based Incentive Mechanism With Prospect Theory for Edge AIGC Services in 6G IoT

The fusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) with sixth-generation (6G) technology has significant potential to revolutionize the IoT landscape. With the ultrareliable and low-latency communication capabilities of 6G, 6G-IoT networks can transmit high-quality and diverse data to enhance edge learning. Artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) harnesses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to automatically generate various types of content. The emergence of edge AIGC integrates with edge networks, facilitating real-time provision of customized AIGC services by deploying AIGC models on edge devices. However, the current practice of edge devices as AIGC service providers (ASPs) lacks incentives, hindering the sustainable provision of high-quality edge AIGC services amidst information asymmetry. In this article, we develop a user-centric incentive mechanism framework for edge AIGC services in 6G-IoT networks. Specifically, we first propose a contract theory model for incentivizing ASPs to provide AIGC services to clients. Recognizing the irrationality of clients toward personalized AIGC services, we utilize prospect theory (PT) to capture their subjective utility better. Furthermore, we adopt the diffusion-based soft actor-critic algorithm to generate the optimal contract design under PT, outperforming traditional deep reinforcement learning algorithms. Our numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.