entitywillas

Entitywillas is a theoretical construct in philosophy of action and artificial intelligence that describes how an autonomous agent encodes its volitional state—the will—to guide deliberation and action. It encompasses the agent's goals, priorities, constraints, and prospective plans, shaping behavior across contexts. The term is used to distinguish the underlying volitional structure from concrete actions or observed outcomes, and it is often discussed in the context of autonomy, deliberative architectures, and value alignment.

Origin and usage: The concept arose in contemporary debates on how to model agency in machines and rational agents. It is commonly defined as the internal representation of an agent's intention map, including time horizons and preferences, which planners and controllers use to select actions.

Core components: An entitywillas consists of (1) a set of current goals or will-states, (2) a priority or utility weighting over these goals, (3) constraints and permissions from the environment, and (4) an updating mechanism that revises goals in light of feedback or new information. It is closely related to but distinct from a plain utility function, since it emphasizes the structure of deliberation and goal management rather than just outcome maximization.

Formalization and use: In planning models, entitywillas can be represented as a weighted goal network or a dynamic intention map that informs action selection. In multi-agent systems, agents exchange sub-goal commitments and negotiate compatible wills.

Examples and applications: It is discussed in AI safety, robotics, and cognitive modeling as a way to reason about agent autonomy and alignment with human values.

Criticism and alternatives: Critics warn that the abstraction may obscure concrete decision processes or complicate interpretability, and propose simpler goal hierarchies or explicable AI frameworks as alternatives.

See also: intentional stance, goal planning, value alignment, agent architecture.