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Improving social competences of virtual agents through artificial consciousness based on the Attention Schema Theory

Description du projet

Une nouvelle manière d’intégrer la conscience à l’IA

La création d’une conscience est l’un des défis les plus importants de l’IA, un domaine qui a rapidement progressé au cours de la dernière décennie. Il reste encore un long chemin à parcourir avant que les machines ne puissent égaler les capacités humaines en matière de conscience et de cognition sociale. Le projet ASTOUND, financé par l’UE, entend établir la conscience dans les machines. L’architecture d’IA du projet pour la conscience artificielle repose sur la théorie du schéma d’attention, selon laquelle le cerveau construit la conscience subjective comme un modèle schématique de l’attention, et les machines peuvent attribuer des propriétés de conscience aux autres de la même manière. Dans l’ensemble, ASTOUND entend créer un agent conversationnel virtuel capable de comprendre le langage naturel avec une plus grande précision et de prendre des décisions empathiques.

Objectif

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.

Régime de financement

HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants

Coordinateur

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 1 300 600,00
Adresse
CALLE RAMIRO DE MAEZTU 7 EDIFICIO RECTORADO
28040 Madrid
Espagne

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Région
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Liens
Coût total
€ 1 300 600,00

Participants (4)