2nd International Seminar on New Issues in Artificial Intelligence

February 2 - 6, 2009
Carlos III University of Madrid
Colmenarejo Campus
Avda. Universidad Carlos III, 22
28270 Colmenarejo (Madrid) SPAIN

Organized by ScALAB (CAOS, EVANNAI, GIAA, PLG) Artificial Intelligence Lab at UC3M.

Invited Speakers

Dr. Xin Yao. University of Birmingham.
Evolving Ensemble of Artificial Neural Networks. Co-Evolution, Games and Social Behaviors. Evolutionary Global Optimisation and Constraint Handling.

Dr. Carlos Coello. CINVESTAV-IPN in Mexico.
Recent Results and Open Problems in Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization.

Dr. Tarunraj Singh. University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.
An overview of advanced estimation algorithms

Dr. Subrata Das. Xerox European Research Centre.
High-Level Information Fusion.

Dr. Michael Buro. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Constructing High-Performance AI Systems for Games.

Dr. Malte Helmert. University of Freiburg.
Planning as heuristic search.

Dr. Silvano Cincotti. University of Genoa.
Agent-based Computational Economics.

Dr. Marco Dorigo. Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Bio-inspired Computing: Swarm Intelligence, Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Robotics.

• Seminar homepage and detailed schedule

See speakers and lectures details below.

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INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS, Hong Kong 14th June 2009

This workshop organized by Gino Yu and Ben Goertzel will be co-colocated with Toward a Science of Consciousness conference (to be held 12th~-14th JUNE 2009). This workshop will explore issues at the intersection of consciousness studies with cognitive robotics and artificial general intelligence.

Among the many important questions lying in this intersection, are the following:

• What do contemporary theories of consciousness say about the possibility and nature of consciousness that may be possible in intelligent robots and software programs?
• Assuming machine consciousness is achievable, what are likely to be the similarities and differences between machine consciousness and human consciousness.
• What can one say about the relationship between degree of consciousness and degree of intelligence, across the scope of potential intelligent systems including humans, robots and software programs.
• How important is embodiment for the development of machine consciousness? How should "embodiment" be defined in this context?
• What are some contemporary robotics or AGI (artificial general intelligence) architectures that have the potential to lead so significant degrees of machine consciousness? Why do they seem to have this potential?
• Is consciousness (or advanced forms of consciousness) something that must emerge within a robotics or AGI system via the system's interaction with its environment, rather than being explicitly programmed in? If so, what are the conditions for its emergence?
• What implications do the social, collective aspects of consciousness have for the possibility and nature of machine consciousness?

Intl. Workshop on Machine Consciousness 2009 Homepage.

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TSC 2009

Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009

Announcement and Call for Papers

Investigating Inner Experience
Brain, Mind, Technology
Hong Kong, China, June 11-14, 2009
www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC
 

Long a meeting place for Eastern and Western ideas and the media capital of Asia, Hong Kong, China hosts the 15th in a series of Toward a Science of Consciousness conferences held yearly since 1994. The conferences are known for broad, interdisciplinary and multi-faceted approaches to the age-old question of how the brain produces consciousness awareness

Subjective inner experience has long been approached through introspection, mysticism, and meditative contemplation, and revealed through art, mythology and ritual. In the past half century, science has found computation among neurons to explain brain functions, and promoted the possibility of conscious machines. Now, various media technologies attempt to communicate, simulate and re-create inner experience. In a spirit of synergy, the conference is organized along three entwined themes.

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A personal summary of the
Nokia Workshop on Machine Consciousness 2008

Nokia Workshop

Being fairly new to the scientific study of consciousness (I’ve just dedicated the last two years to my research in Machine Consciousness), and having more experience in other classical AI areas, I never had the chance to be involved in a real scientific and rigorous discussion about such a captivating topic as the creation of consciousness in machines. I have been to other Artificial Intelligence conference and forums, but never had the feeling of how real science is done and how the progress in a particular field of knowledge is achieved. Now, after the Nokia Workshop, I can say that I’ve seen how a small scientific community is able to seriously ponder their own principles and openly debate current advances in the sought of a common goal. From my point of view, this atmosphere is something that most of AI researchers have lost, leading current AI research to forget the spirit of GOFAI (Good Old Fashined AI). Participants of the Nokia Workshop were fully aware of the enormous challenges that Strong AI involves, but they have decided to pursue the real big challenge instead of being captured by the narrow vision which predominates in current AI scientific and engineering communitites. 

Nokia Workshop Round Table

The presentations and round table discussions revealed that while the philosophical approach to consciousness remains active and controversial, functional approaches and applications are now becoming a reality. Although the experts reckon that vast effort and much more resources are required in this research field, the general feeling was quite positive in terms of the promising future of the Machine Consciousness paradigm. From my perspective, the exceptional ability of this research community to question their own principles, escaping from narrow views, and their enthusiasm for real scientific challenges will produce remarkable results in the short term.

Note from the chair:

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