Colloquium Details
Of Mice and Minsky: what neuroscience can tell us about the prospects of artificial intelligence
| Author: | Keith L. Downing Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
|---|---|
| Date: | October 06, 2005 |
| Time: | 15:30 |
| Location: | 220 Deschutes |
Abstract
Builders of classic symbolic Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems - often called "Good Old-Fashioned AI" (GOFAI) systems - have struggled for decades to load their knowledge bases with useful common-sense information. Conversely, supporters of Situated and Embodied Artificial Intelligence (SEAI) attempt to build robots that ACQUIRE this common-sense understanding of the world via interactions between software brains, hardware bodies and the environment. This mirrors the belief held by many neuroscientists that animal common sense involves learned, subconscious, predictive models of the outcomes of physical actions. However, the transfer of this procedural sensorimotor skill knowledge to declarative cognitive processes is non-trivial, indicating that SEAI may soon meet a daunting challenge of its own. This talk considers the neurological basis of procedural common sense and the possibilities for its transfer to conscious reasoning. This helps assess the prospects for SEAI to eventually surpass GOFAI in the quest for generally and genuinely intelligent systems.
Biography
Dr. Keith Downing has been Professor of Computer Science at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim, Norway) since 1996. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Bucknell University in 1983, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Oregon in 1990. Since then he has worked as a Post-doc in Linkoping, Sweden, and building environmental simulators at SINTEF in Trondheim, Norway.
Dr. Downings primary research interests include: Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, Evolutionary Computation, Neural Networks, and Computational Neuroscience.