A value-driven system for autonomous information gathering

This paper presents a system for autonomous information gathering in an inf ormation rich domain under time and monetary resource restrictions. The sys tem gathers information using an explicit representation of the user's deci sion model and a database of information sources. Information gathering is performed by repeatedly selecting the query with the highest marginal value . This value is determined by the value of the information with respect to the decision being made, the responsiveness of the information source, and a given resource cost function. Finally, we compare the value-driven approa ch to several base-line techniques and show that the overhead of the meta-l evel control is made up for by the increased decision quality.