Machina Economicus: A New Paradigm for Prosumers in the Energy Internet of Smart Cities

TL;DR

This paper introduces Machina Economicus, a new paradigm combining machine learning and mechanism design to analyze and optimize prosumer behaviors in the Energy Internet of smart cities, addressing economic and social challenges.

Contribution

It proposes a novel AI/IoT-based framework for modeling, analyzing, and optimizing prosumer interactions in the Energy Internet using game theory and mechanism design.

Findings

Reveals how AI reshapes prosumer behaviors in energy sharing

Provides insights into competition and collaboration among prosumers

Suggests potential AI solutions for smart city energy management

Abstract

Energy Internet (EI) is emerging as new share economy platform for flexible local energy supplies in smart cities. Empowered by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), EI aims to unlock peer-to-peer energy trading and sharing among prosumers, who can adeptly switch roles between providers and consumers in localized energy markets with rooftop photovoltaic panels, vehicle-to-everything technologies, packetized energy management, etc. The integration of prosumers in EI, however, will encounter many challenges in modelling, analyzing, and designing an efficient, economic, and social-optimal platform for energy sharing, calling for advanced AI/IoT-based solutions to resource optimization, information exchange, and interaction protocols in the context of the share economy. In this study, we aim to introduce a recently emerged paradigm, Machina Economicus, to investigate the economic rationality in modelling, analysis, and optimization of AI/IoT-based EI prosumer behaviors. The new paradigm, built upon the theory of machine learning and mechanism design, will offer new angles to investigate the selfishness of AI through a game-theoretic perspective, revealing potential competition and collaborations resulting from the self-adaptive learning and decision-making capacity. This study will focus on how the introduction of AI will reshape prosumer behaviors on the EI, and how this paradigm will reveal new research questions and directions when AI meets the share economy. With an extensive case analysis in the literature, we will also shed light on potential solutions for advancements of AI in future smart cities.