What would it take to make an AI conscious? And more intriguingly, what can building artificial simulations of consciousness teach us about our own brains? Interdisciplinary researchers Blake Richards (McGill University/Mila) and Anil Seth (University of Sussex), joined us to unpick the fact from the fiction of conscious AI.
Blake Richards is a fellow in CIFAR’s Learning in Machines & Brains program, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila, and a professor at McGill University. His research program focuses on neural computation, learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). Using a combination of computational modelling and advanced neuroscience and brain imaging approaches, his lab is exploring the principles of learning in neural circuits.
Anil Seth is the co-director of CIFAR’s Brain, Mind & Consciousness program, the co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, and a professor at the University of Sussex. His research draws together multiple disciplines from psychology to philosophy to AI to explore the biological basis of consciousness and perception.