Smart Choices and the Selection Monad

Describing systems in terms of choices and their resulting costs and rewards promises to free algorithm designers and programmers from specifying how to make those choices. In implementations, the choices can be realized by optimization or machine-learning methods.We study this approach from a progr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science pp. 1 - 14
Main Authors: Abadi, Martin, Plotkin, Gordon
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: IEEE 29.06.2021
Subjects:
Decision making
Games
Machine learning
Pareto optimization
Probabilistic logic
Semantics
Writing
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract Describing systems in terms of choices and their resulting costs and rewards promises to free algorithm designers and programmers from specifying how to make those choices. In implementations, the choices can be realized by optimization or machine-learning methods.We study this approach from a programming-language perspective. We define a small language that supports decision-making abstraction, rewards, and probabilities. We give a globally optimizing operational semantics, and, using the selection monad for decision-making, three denotational semantics with auxiliary monads for reward and probability; the three model various correlations between returned values and expected rewards. We show the two kinds of semantics coincide by proving adequacy theorems; we show that observational equivalence is characterized by semantic equality (at basic types) by proving full abstraction theorems; and we discuss program equations.
AbstractList Describing systems in terms of choices and their resulting costs and rewards promises to free algorithm designers and programmers from specifying how to make those choices. In implementations, the choices can be realized by optimization or machine-learning methods.We study this approach from a programming-language perspective. We define a small language that supports decision-making abstraction, rewards, and probabilities. We give a globally optimizing operational semantics, and, using the selection monad for decision-making, three denotational semantics with auxiliary monads for reward and probability; the three model various correlations between returned values and expected rewards. We show the two kinds of semantics coincide by proving adequacy theorems; we show that observational equivalence is characterized by semantic equality (at basic types) by proving full abstraction theorems; and we discuss program equations.
Author Abadi, Martin
Plotkin, Gordon
Author_xml – sequence: 1
  givenname: Martin
  surname: Abadi
  fullname: Abadi, Martin
  organization: Google Research
– sequence: 2
  givenname: Gordon
  surname: Plotkin
  fullname: Plotkin, Gordon
  organization: Google Research
BookMark eNotj8tKw0AUQEdQUGu-QJBsXCbOvXPntZTgoxDpInVdZjI3NFIn0mTj31uwq7M7nHMrLvOUWYgHkDWA9E_tuuk0oqEaJULtyUpDcCEKbx0Yo4mc1-ZaFPP8JaVEZ0GSvxGP3Xc4LmWzn8ae5zLkVC57Ljs-cL-MUy4_phzSnbgawmHm4syV-Hx92TbvVbt5WzfPbRXQ-aWyenDGhQHCSZ6CjTGSoj5oYpTEjDggJSuj5aggEZhEhkF5G8FhTGol7v-9IzPvfo7jKe53d55Rf0mjQHY
ContentType Conference Proceeding
DBID 6IE
6IH
CBEJK
RIE
RIO
DOI 10.1109/LICS52264.2021.9470641
DatabaseName IEEE Electronic Library (IEL) Conference Proceedings
IEEE Proceedings Order Plan (POP) 1998-present by volume
IEEE Xplore All Conference Proceedings
IEEE Electronic Library (IEL)
IEEE Proceedings Order Plans (POP) 1998-present
DatabaseTitleList
Database_xml – sequence: 1
  dbid: RIE
  name: IEEE Electronic Library (IEL)
  url: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
  sourceTypes: Publisher
DeliveryMethod fulltext_linktorsrc
EISBN 9781665448956
1665448954
EndPage 14
ExternalDocumentID 9470641
Genre orig-research
GroupedDBID 6IE
6IH
ACM
ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS
APO
CBEJK
GUFHI
LHSKQ
RIE
RIO
ID FETCH-LOGICAL-a289t-75f868af1a104da7bbb434ca54e204ee22f24d70b7eb31d416d46e1397b182bd3
IEDL.DBID RIE
ISICitedReferencesCount 1
ISICitedReferencesURI http://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=Summon&SrcAuth=ProQuest&DestLinkType=CitingArticles&DestApp=WOS_CPL&KeyUT=000947350400054&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com%2F%23%21%2Fsearch%3Fho%3Df%26include.ft.matches%3Dt%26l%3Dnull%26q%3D
IngestDate Wed Aug 27 02:26:37 EDT 2025
IsPeerReviewed false
IsScholarly true
Language English
LinkModel DirectLink
MergedId FETCHMERGED-LOGICAL-a289t-75f868af1a104da7bbb434ca54e204ee22f24d70b7eb31d416d46e1397b182bd3
PageCount 14
ParticipantIDs ieee_primary_9470641
PublicationCentury 2000
PublicationDate 2021-June-29
PublicationDateYYYYMMDD 2021-06-29
PublicationDate_xml – month: 06
  year: 2021
  text: 2021-June-29
  day: 29
PublicationDecade 2020
PublicationTitle Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science
PublicationTitleAbbrev LICS
PublicationYear 2021
Publisher IEEE
Publisher_xml – name: IEEE
SSID ssj0002871049
Score 2.1846075
Snippet Describing systems in terms of choices and their resulting costs and rewards promises to free algorithm designers and programmers from specifying how to make...
SourceID ieee
SourceType Publisher
StartPage 1
SubjectTerms Decision making
Games
Machine learning
Pareto optimization
Probabilistic logic
Semantics
Writing
Title Smart Choices and the Selection Monad
URI https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9470641
WOSCitedRecordID wos000947350400054&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com%2F%23%21%2Fsearch%3Fho%3Df%26include.ft.matches%3Dt%26l%3Dnull%26q%3D
hasFullText 1
inHoldings 1
isFullTextHit
isPrint
link http://cvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwlV3fS8MwED7m8MEnlU38TR70zWxtmjbtc3EojDGoyt7GpbmiD3YyO_9-L12ZCL74FgIh3B3H990ldwdwk1Rs1widTKqYJON1JdHpRGIUKEwVZmWbyn6ZmtksXSyyeQ_udrUwRNR-PqORX7Zv-W5VbnyqbJxpwwjKsc6eMcm2VmuXT_HMn9luVwQcBtl4-pgXnl34zIkKR93hX1NUWhCZHP7v-iMY_lTjifkOZ46hR_UAbot3NrrIX1fe0wXWTjCVE0U71oZ1LdhZ0Q3heXL_lD_IbuSBRI58GmniKk1SrEJkYRwaa62OdImxJhVoIqUqpZ0JrOEgOHTMplix5Fmc5UDBuugE-vWqplMQNsQSUdvIaqOd5wWM1pnvz0Wli0NzBgMv4vJj29Vi2Ul3_vf2BRx4LfpPUiq7hH6z3tAV7Jdfzdvn-ro1xTcujIgR
linkProvider IEEE
linkToHtml http://cvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwlV3fS8MwED7GFPRJZRN_mwd9M1ubpk37PBwb1jLolL2NS5OiD3Zjbv79XroyEXzxLQQCuTuO77tL7g7gLirJrgEaHpWh5YTXJUcjI46BJzAWmBR1Kvs1VVkWz2bJpAUPu1oYa239-cz23LJ-yzeLYuNSZf1EKkJQinX2QimFt63W2mVUHPcnvtuUAfte0k_Hg9zxC5c7EX6vOf5rjkoNI8Oj_13gGLo_9XhsskOaE2jZqgP3-QeZnQ3eFs7XGVaGEZljeT3YhrTNyF3RdOFl-DgdjHgz9IAjxT5rrsIyjmIsfSRhDCqttQxkgaG0wpPWClEKaZSnFYXBviE-Raq1jsdpChW0CU6hXS0qewZM-1ggSh1oqaRxzIDwOnEdumxhQl-dQ8eJOF9u-1rMG-ku_t6-hYPR9Dmdp-Ps6RIOnUbdlymRXEF7vdrYa9gvvtbvn6ub2izfePaLWA
openUrl ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=proceeding&rft.title=Proceedings+of+the+36th+Annual+ACM%2FIEEE+Symposium+on+Logic+in+Computer+Science&rft.atitle=Smart+Choices+and+the+Selection+Monad&rft.au=Abadi%2C+Martin&rft.au=Plotkin%2C+Gordon&rft.date=2021-06-29&rft.pub=IEEE&rft.spage=1&rft.epage=14&rft_id=info:doi/10.1109%2FLICS52264.2021.9470641&rft.externalDocID=9470641