"Yes I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?" The Tiglath Pileser principle and models of persuasion
Faculty of Informatics - Academic Studies Administration
Date: 27 April 2026 / 12:00 - 13:00
USI East Campus, Room D5.01
Speaker: Alessandra Palmigiano, School of Business and Economics of the VU Amsterdam
Abstract:
We discuss a formal framework for modelling how agents extract reliable information from stories and communications in which speakers may strategically distort the truth. Building on Rubinstein-Glazer’s models of persuasion, we formalize the application of Halpern’s Tiglath-Pileser principle for extracting reliable information, based on the idea that, while they might be systematically biased, reported claims must maintain a connection with the truth.
Our approach accounts for how Tiglath-Pileser relations are formed, revised, and strategically manipulated during a narration/communication, giving rise to higher-order reasoning about the reliability and intentions of information sources.
We show how this machinery can account for Halpern’s interpretation of the biblical account of King David.
The framework integrates tools from logic and game theory, contributing to the understanding of dynamics of belief formation under strategic information transmission, and providing formal foundations for the theory of mind in agentic AI.
Biography:Alessandra Palmigiano is Chair of Logic and Management Theory at the School of Business and Economics of the VU Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the Logics for Social Behaviour, and their applications to the development of explainable AI.
Hosts: Prof. Ernst-Jan Camiel Wit