Integrated Information in the Active Inference Framework
Carlotta Langer, Jesse van Oostrum, Nihat Ay
arXiv Preprint Archive August 14, 2026 preprint
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper with simulation experiments |
|---|---|
| Population | Simulated active inference agents |
| Keywords | Cs.it |
| Key findings | The proposed measure of integrated information correlates with free energy in simulated active inference agents, and this correlation increases with the size of the generative model. |
Abstract
The active inference framework provides a principled approach to modeling sentient behavior. In this framework perception and action selection are treated in a unified way. The resulting agents form an internal generative model of the relevant dynamics of the world in order to infer their future observations, their internal states and to select actions. We combine this modeling framework with the Integrated Information Theory of consciousness and are therefore able to analyze the active inference agents from the perspective of integrated information. The Integrated Information Theory aims at quantifying the level of consciousness of a system by assessing its capability to integrate information. Here, we define a measure of integrated information for the generative model by making an additional structural assumption. Experiments with simulated agents reveal a correlation between integrated information measures and the free energy of the active inference agents that increases with the size of the generative model.