EiNS Seminar, Wed 30 April, 9am (GMT-3) (9:00 pm JST Japan), Dr. Tom Froese on “How do we make meaning matter in Artificial Intelligence?”
Dear All, You are cordially invited to the first 2025 EiNS seminar in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence -- https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/eins-seminars *“How do we make meaning matter in Artificial Intelligence?” by **Tom Froese * Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) -– Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (Japan) *Date:* Wed 30 April - 9am (GMT-3) (9:00 pm JST Japan) *Live Streaming:* https://www.youtube.com/ExactasUNCPBA/live *Language of the talk:* Spanish *Abstract:* How do we ensure that meaning-bearing aspects of agency make a measurable difference in behavior generation? We will consider a novel test for candidate theories, the “participation criterion”: End-directedness of behavior entails that, in principle, it is distinguishable by measurement from one without end-directedness. But how can this criterion ever be satisfied by artificial agents? We will evaluate the possibility that end-directedness will show up as a local increase in unpredictability of system dynamics, which has the global effect of stochastically nudging the system toward aligning with the goal state. *BIO: *Dr. Tom Froese is an Associate Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan, where he leads the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (ECSU). Before 2019, he was a Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he led the 4E Cognition Group. Froese completed his PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex in the UK in 2010 and his MSc in Computer Science and Cybernetics at the University of Reading in 2004. His research spans theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to life, mind, and sociality. Further information at https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/eins-seminars Regards, Jose A. Fernandez-Leon Fellenz Adjunct Professor UNCPBA - Researcher CONICET CIFICEN (UNCPBA-CICPBA-CONICET) & INTIA (UNCPBA-CICPBA) Dept. of Computer Science and Systems - Exactas-UNCPBA EMail: jafernandez@intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar Web: https://jafphd.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/ NeuroAI Lab: https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/
Dear All, You are cordially invited to a new 2025 EiNS seminar in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence -- https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/eins-seminars *“The Thermodynamics of Mind” by Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco* Center for Brain and Cognition - Theoretical Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra / ICREA, Barcelona, Spain *Date: Wed 25 June 2025 -- 1 PM (GMT-3) * *Live Streaming:* https://www.youtube.com/ExactasUNCPBA/live *Language of the talk:* Spanish *Abstract: *Finding precise signatures of different brain states is a central, unsolved question in neuroscience. The difference in brain state can be described as differences in the detailed causal interactions found in the underlying intrinsic brain dynamics. We use a Thermodynamics framework to quantify the breaking of the detailed balance captured by the level of asymmetry in temporal processing, i.e. the arrow of time. We also formulate a novel whole-brain model paradigm allowing us to derive the generative underlying mechanisms for changing the arrow of time between brain regions in different conditions. We found precise, distinguishing signatures in terms of the reversibility and hierarchy of large-scale dynamics in three radically different brain states (cognition, rest, deep sleep and anaesthesia) in fMRI and electrocorticography data from human and non-human primates. Overall, this provides signatures of the breaking of detailed balance in different brain states, reflecting different levels of computation. *BIO:* Gustavo Deco is a Research Professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and a Full Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where he leads the Computational Neuroscience Group. He was also Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition from 2001 to 2021 (UPF). In 1987, he received his PhD in Physics for his thesis on Relativistic Atomic Collisions. In 1987, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Bordeaux, France. From 1988 to 1990, he held a postdoctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Giessen, Germany. From 1990 to 2003, he led the Computational Neuroscience Group at the Siemens Corporate Research Center in Munich, Germany. In 1997, he obtained his Habilitation (the highest academic degree in Germany) in Computer Science (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) from the Technical University of Munich for his thesis on neural learning. In 2001, he received his PhD in Psychology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. In 2012, he received a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Fellowship and, most recently, an ERC Synergy Fellowship in 2022. *Further information:* https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/eins-seminars Regards, Jose A. Fernandez-Leon Fellenz Adjunct Professor UNCPBA - Researcher CONICET CIFICEN (UNCPBA-CICPBA-CONICET) & INTIA (UNCPBA-CICPBA) Dept. of Computer Science and Systems - Exactas-UNCPBA EMail: jafernandez@intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar Web: https://jafphd.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/ NeuroAI Lab: https://neuro-ai-lab.intia.exa.unicen.edu.ar/
participants (1)
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Jose A. Fernandez