Explaining Teleo-reactive Strategic Behaviour

Game-theoretic simulations are a powerful tool for exploring strategic interactions and guiding decision-making in fields ranging from business to economics and politics. However, simulations of such complex systems are often difficult to understand intuitively and debug. In this context, particularly challenging and hard to detect are logical (intentional) errors resulting from faulty logic in an agent's strategy. To address this challenge, we develop a framework for question-based explanations, enhancing the understanding of agents' behaviour. We focus on teleo-reactive agents in game-theoretical simulations, specifically in tournament and evolutionary contexts. Our approach centres on trace-based explanations, utilising behavioural logs to identify the steps leading to particular outcomes. We formally describe explanation templates for “why” and “why not” question types, linking them to agents' goals, beliefs, and condition-action rules. Furthermore, we provide formal definitions of the answers to these questions, linking them to output templates. The methodology is demonstrated through example dialogue scenarios, showing how these explanations can improve debugging efficiency by offering high-level insights into agents' behaviours.