A Conceptual Framework for Artificial Intelligence Combining Buddhism and the Free Energy Principle
Yasunari Miyagi, Yoko Tateishi, Moe Yorozu, Takehi Yamagata
Digital Humanities Social Science and Cultural Preservation July 11, 2026 DOI: 10.66311/3069-2237.02.03.01 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Keywords | Free energy principle Inference Energy signal processing Cognition Free will Function biology Conceptual framework Artificial intelligence Cognitive science Artificial consciousness Buddhist philosophy Artificial general intelligence Information theory |
| Key points | Proposes that an AI system integrating vijñapti-mātratā philosophy with the free energy principle could achieve performance enabling perception of knowledge and actions including human-like emotional expressions. |
Abstract
Remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have been made in recent years. There is a theory that brain activity in humans is based on the free energy principle, which is a comprehensive theory that attempts to explain the structure and function of cognition and the brain’s behavior. For any self-organized system to be in equilibrium within its environment, the agent performs active inference to minimize the system’s informational free energy and reduce the prediction error from the current presumption. On the other hand, the theory based on the vijñapti-mātratā of Buddhist philosophy explains consciousness through a multilayered structure comprising manifestation and information storage and seems to result in a certain degree of compatibility with AI systems that perform calculations and store information. Therefore, an AI that integrates the vijñapti-mātratā philosophy with the free energy principle could achieve performance, enabling us to perceive not only knowledge but also actions that include human-like emotional expressions. We hereby report that an AI system theory that integrates the theory of vijñapti-mātratā with the principle of free energy.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |