Software agents and virtual organisations: consent and trust

Abstract

The use of software agents in electronic commerce scenarios must be connected to the existence of corporate bodies and virtual organisations. Indeed, software agents tend to play a determinant role in corporate bodies and Virtual Enterprises (VEs). However, it must be considered that software agents' behaviours are not entirely foreseeable, since they are able to behave with good or bad faith. Thus, it is of utmost relevance to consider the issue of trust in software agents, both at the individual and systemic level. At the systemic level, it will be interesting to consider smart contracts, which may well enhance trust in electronic contracting. , Portugal. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the same university in 2003. His current research directions span the fields of knowledge representation and reasoning, multi-agent systems, ambient intelligence, collaborative networks and AI and the law. He is supervising several MSc and PhD projects and has published Software agents and virtual organisations: consent and trust 353 more than 50 papers in international journals, conferences and workshops and has co-edited two books. He is the Vice President of the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence (APPIA). He also has a webpage at span the domains of artificial intelligence, databases and medical and biomedical informatics, with particular interests in the fields of knowledge representation and reasoning, multi-agent systems, ambient intelligence, AI and the law, AI in medicine and medical records. He has published more than 60 papers in international journals, conferences and workshops and has co-edited two books. He has a webpage at in 1984. His current research directions span the fields of AI and the law, knowledge representation and reasoning and multi-agent systems. He has published more than 100 papers in international journals, conferences and workshops, as well as two books. He has a webpage at http://www.di.uminho.pt/˜jneves.