Answers.Body: <p>An agent is a concept, which can have slightly different meanings, abilities or instantiations depending on the context. However, given the purpose of this website, I will use and refer to the definition of agent commonly used in artificial intelligence. </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon that environment through actuators.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>For more details regarding the definition of an agent in AI, see <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/a/12995/2444">my answer</a> to the question <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/12991/2444">What is an agent in Artificial Intelligence?</a>.</p>
  
  <p>A multi-agent system is a system composed of multiple agents that interact with an environment. See <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324847369_Multi-Agent_Systems_A_survey" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Multi-Agent Systems: A survey</a> (2018) fore a more exhaustive overview of the field.</p>
  
  <p>Multimodal interaction (MI) refers to the interaction with a system (e.g. a computer) using multiple modalities (e.g. speech or gestures). For example, we usually can interact with a laptop using a keyboard and a touchpad (or mouse), so the keyboard and the touchpad are the two different modalities that are used to interact with the computer. MI could thus be considered a sub-field of <a href="http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~ajaimes/Pubs/ajaimes_iccv05.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">human-computer interaction</a>. </p>
  
  <p>Conceptually, an agent could be associated with each modality provided by a multimodal system, so a system that provides multimodal interaction could indeed be a multi-agent system. See, for example, <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/74b9/ecc75c58f5ad296db2039efdf4feef25c7ce.pdf?_ga=2.265678347.50664443.1565048863-308724315.1559322718" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A Multi-Agent based Multimodal System Adaptive to the User’s Interaction Context</a> (2011).</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-05T23:48:10.847Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-05T23:48:10.847Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: nbro
Body: <p>The Wikipedia definitions are as follows</p>
  
  <p><strong>Multi-agent systems</strong> - <em>A multi-agent system is a computerized system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents.</em></p>
  
  <p><strong>Multi-modal interaction</strong> - <em>Multimodal interaction provides the user with multiple modes of interacting with a system.</em></p>
  
  <p>Doesn't providing a user with multiple modes of interacting with a system, assuming all modalities interact with each other to give final output (some sort of fusion mechanism for example), make it a multi-agent system? </p>
  
  <p>If not, what is the difference between multi-modal and multi-agent systems and, monolithic and uni-modal systems?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-08-05T17:32:33.117Z
Comments.Text: analogy: Just because I can either drive with my left hand or right hand, I am still the only one driving
Comments.UserDisplayName: mshlis
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-10-10T15:53:49.590Z
Comments.Text: this is a philosophical question
Comments.UserDisplayName: Bijan
Tags: <machine-learning><comparison><multi-agent-systems>
Title: What is the difference between multi-agent and multi-modal systems?
UserDisplayName: ashenoy
ThreadText: # What is the difference between multi-agent and multi-modal systems?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-08-05)
  
  The Wikipedia definitions are as follows
  
  **Multi-agent systems** - *A multi-agent system is a computerized system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents.*
  
  **Multi-modal interaction** - *Multimodal interaction provides the user with multiple modes of interacting with a system.*
  
  Doesn't providing a user with multiple modes of interacting with a system, assuming all modalities interact with each other to give final output (some sort of fusion mechanism for example), make it a multi-agent system?
  
  If not, what is the difference between multi-modal and multi-agent systems and, monolithic and uni-modal systems?
  
  **Tags:** machine-learning, comparison, multi-agent-systems
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: analogy: Just because I can either drive with my left hand or right hand, I am still the only one driving  
  > **username_2**: this is a philosophical question  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2019-08-05. Score: 2 | Accepted answer
  
  An agent is a concept, which can have slightly different meanings, abilities or instantiations depending on the context. However, given the purpose of this website, I will use and refer to the definition of agent commonly used in artificial intelligence.
  
  > An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon that environment through actuators.
  
  For more details regarding the definition of an agent in AI, see [my answer](https://ai.stackexchange.com/a/12995/2444) to the question [What is an agent in Artificial Intelligence?](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/12991/2444).
  
  A multi-agent system is a system composed of multiple agents that interact with an environment. See [Multi-Agent Systems: A survey](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324847369_Multi-Agent_Systems_A_survey) (2018) fore a more exhaustive overview of the field.
  
  Multimodal interaction (MI) refers to the interaction with a system (e.g. a computer) using multiple modalities (e.g. speech or gestures). For example, we usually can interact with a laptop using a keyboard and a touchpad (or mouse), so the keyboard and the touchpad are the two different modalities that are used to interact with the computer. MI could thus be considered a sub-field of [human-computer interaction](http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~ajaimes/Pubs/ajaimes_iccv05.pdf).
  
  Conceptually, an agent could be associated with each modality provided by a multimodal system, so a system that provides multimodal interaction could indeed be a multi-agent system. See, for example, [A Multi-Agent based Multimodal System Adaptive to the User’s Interaction Context](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/74b9/ecc75c58f5ad296db2039efdf4feef25c7ce.pdf?_ga=2.265678347.50664443.1565048863-308724315.1559322718) (2011).
  
  
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