Humane by design: Toward safe, human‐centered multi‐agent systems

Abstract Multi‐agent systems (MAS) are helping to unleash AI from the solitary confinement of standalone applications so they can perform coordinated actions in the wider world, functioning within distributed networks of people, tools, and other agents. However, there are unique safety issues that emerge when agents move from deliberative goal formulation and alignment to performing real‐world activities in support of those goals. Considering the high‐stake opportunities and risks of MAS, a group of researchers from around the world have formed the international Multi‐Agent System Safety and Teamwork (MASST) initiative. Essays in this this AI Magazine special issue on Safety and Human‐Centered Agent Interaction —and its companion special issue on Multi‐Agent System Teamwork —have been selected from the proceedings of past MASST events. In this article, we outline some of the needed requirements for making MAS “humane by design.” Innovative research relating to these requirements is grouped under three headings: 1. governance and design; 2. guardrails, accountability, trustworthiness, and privacy; 3. reskilling, denarrowing, dialogic reasoning, empathizing, and exemplifying.