Project description
A new way to bring consciousness to AI
Creating consciousness is one of the most significant challenges in AI, a field that has been advancing rapidly in the past decade. There is still a long way to go before machines can match human-like abilities in consciousness and social cognition. The EU-funded ASTOUND project aims to establish consciousness in machines. The project’s AI architecture for artificial consciousness is based on the attention schema theory. It suggests that the brain constructs subjective awareness as a schematic model of attention, and machines can attribute consciousness properties to others similarly. Overall, ASTOUND aims to create a virtual conversational agent that can understand natural language with greater accuracy and empathetic decision-making.
Objective
In the last decade, deep learning algorithms have enabled AI systems to perform a series of tasks, like speech and image recognition, as well as or better than humans. However, this technology is not going to be enough to deliver human-level intelligence without consciousness. Without understanding the subjective awareness element, it may be impossible to build AI that has a human-like ability to focus its computational resources and intelligently control that focus and interact with people in a socially competent manner. ASTOUND proposes an Integrative Approach For Awareness Engineering to establish consciousness in machines. The approach consists of an AI architecture for Artificial Consciousness based on the Attention Schema Theory (AST), a novel approach to social cognition that reconciles some of the current most debated cognitive neuroscience theories of consciousness. According to the AST, the brain constructs subjective awareness as a schematic model of the process of attention, suggesting that an information-processing machine could attribute consciousness properties to others in a similar way. The AST-based architecture proposed by ASTOUND will combine an Attention Mechanism provided by the attentional layers in a deep neural architecture and a Long Term Memory module allowing interplay between internal and external stimuli (data) with an Attention Schema that will determine empathic and trustworthy decision-making. ASTOUND will first implement this architecture into a virtual conversational agent (i.e. chatbot) to verify the hypothesis that an artificial consciousness based on AST will improve performance in a task of natural language understanding. ASTOUND will provide insights into consciousness that are concrete enough, and mechanistic enough, that engineers can build upon it to facilitate future technologies. The study has the potential to be a toolbox for the construction of an EIC Portfolio in conscious AI.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28040 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.