Humanoid Cognitive Robots That Learn by Imitating: Implications for Consciousness Studies
James A. Reggia, Garrett E. Katz, Gregory P. Davis
Frontiers in Robotics and AI January 26, 2018 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Machine consciousness Artificial consciousness Cognitive robots Cognitive phenomenology Imitation learning |
| Citations | 41 |
| Key points | Argues that top-down cognitive control of working memory, particularly its gating mechanisms, is an important potential computational correlate of consciousness in humanoid robots. |
Abstract
While the concept of a conscious machine is intriguing, producing such a machine remains controversial and challenging. Here, we describe how our work on creating a humanoid cognitive robot that learns to perform tasks via imitation learning relates to this issue. Our discussion is divided into three parts. First, we summarize our previous framework for advancing the understanding of the nature of phenomenal consciousness. This framework is based on identifying computational correlates of consciousness. Second, we describe a cognitive robotic system that we recently developed that learns to perform tasks by imitating human-provided demonstrations. This humanoid robot uses cause–effect reasoning to infer a demonstrator’s intentions in performing a task, rather than just imitating the observed actions verbatim. In particular, its cognitive components center on top-down control of a working memory that retains the explanatory interpretations that the robot constructs during learning. Finally, we describe our ongoing work that is focused on converting our robot’s imitation learning cognitive system into purely neurocomputational form, including both its low-level cognitive neuromotor components, its use of working memory, and its causal reasoning mechanisms. Based on our initial results, we argue that the top-down cognitive control of working memory, and in particular its gating mechanisms, is an important potential computational correlate of consciousness in humanoid robots. We conclude that developing high-level neurocognitive control systems for cognitive robots and using them to search for computational correlates of consciousness provides an important approach to advancing our understanding of consciousness, and that it provides a credible and achievable route to ultimately developing a phenomenally conscious machine.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- A Basic Architecture of an Autonomous Adaptive System With Conscious-Like Function for a Humanoid Robot Frontiers in Robotics and AI April 4, 2018
- Robots and Machine Consciousness Cognitive Robotics May 17, 2022
- The Prospects of Artificial Consciousness: Ethical Dimensions and Concerns. AJOB Neuroscience 2023
- BASIC METHODS AND APPROACHES TO ARTIFICIAL CONSCIOUSNESS MODELING News of the Kabardin-Balkar Scientific Center of RAS 2022
- A Design of Global Workspace Model with Attention: Simulations of Attentional Blink and Lag-1 Sparing Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness October 13, 2021
and 2 more in the library
Cites 14
- On a confusion about a function of consciousness Behavioral and Brain Sciences June 1, 1995
- An information integration theory of consciousness BMC Neuroscience November 2, 2004
- Breakdown of Cortical Effective Connectivity During Sleep Science September 29, 2005
- Large-scale signatures of unconsciousness are consistent with a departure from critical dynamics Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 2016
- The rise of machine consciousness: studying consciousness with computational models. Neural Networks August 1, 2013
and 9 more in the library