NLX Journal Club

Cognitive Modeling and AGI

Sala 6.3.27, Ciências ULisboa

Por António Branco.

Cognitive modeling is concerned with computational models of the mind or particular cognitive processes for the purposes of scientific comprehension and prediction of their performance and outcome regarding relevant input. It is the apex of Cognitive Science as it confronts and articulates the coherence of its disparate macro- and micro-level findings and bridges to its technological applications [1][2].

This talk aims at being an invitation to this most fascinating and challenging research area, which has gone through vigorous progress recently, as it is moving from being based merely on external representations of cognitive content or activity (e.g. text, pictures, etc.) to successfully take their neural-based representations into account (e.g. EEG, fMRI, etc.).

We highlight its major approaches, with their more prominent promises and challenges, from the ones based in logics to those based on deep neural networks.

Past and current research carried out in our Cognitive Science and Informatics Engineering postgraduation programs are briefly overviewed, which covers the modeling of grammatical knowledge [3][4], mood [5], semantics [6], emotions [7], reading [8], imagined speech [9] or olfaction [10], among others.

Cognitive modeling being a scientific endeavour on its own and confluent with AI, and given the awesome advances in so-called Generative AI, we focus on the ongoing debate about the prospects of AGI (Artificial General Inteligence) being reached soon [11][12][13], and the eventual relevance from and for cognitive modeling.

Short bio: António Branco is the Coordinator of the MA and PhD programs on Cognitive Science of the University of Lisbon (inter-faculties: Sciences, Letters, Medicine and Psychology).

He is a scientist from FCUL whose research is devoted to Artificial Intelligence and its subarea of Natural Language Processing, with a special focus on the technological preparation of the Portuguese language for the digital age, aiming thus at contributing to enhance the citizenship of its speakers in the information society.

References:

  • [1] Newell, Allen, 1973, You can't play 20 questions with nature and win, W. G. Chase (ed.) Visual Information
  • Processing, New York: Academic Press. https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~crocker/documents/Newell-1973.pdf
  • [2] Open Science Collaboration, 2015, Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science, Science vol 349, n. 6251. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aac4716
  • [3] Costa, Francisco, 2012, Processing Temporal Information in Unstructured Documents, PhD Thesis, Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Supervisor: António Branco http://hdl.handle.net/10451/8639
  • [4] Silva, João, 2014. Robust Handling of Out-of-Vocabulary Words in Deep Language Processing. PhD Thesis, Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Supervisor: António Branco. http://hdl.handle.net/10451/11956
  • [5] Ribeiro, João Gulherme, 2016, Sistemas dinâmicos não lineares em doença mental, PhD Thesis, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, Supervisors: Carlos Lourenço (FCUL) and Ana Sebastião (FMUL). http://hdl.handle.net/10451/25145
  • [6] Maraev, Vladislav, 2017, Modelling Semantic Relations with Distributional Semantics and Deep Learning, MA Thesis, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, Supervisors: António Branco (FCUL) and Carlos Lourenço (FCUL). http://hdl.handle.net/10451/30183
  • [7] Vieira, Iolanda, 2022, Recognizing Emotions in Short Texts, MA Thesis, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, Supervisors: João Silva (FCUL) and Patrícia Ferreira (ISCTE). http://hdl.handle.net/10451/53771
  • [8] Fottner, Nicola, 2023, Modelling early to mid-level visual processes of illiterate populations with Deep Belief Networks, MA Thesis, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, Supervisors: Tânia Fernandes (FPUL) and Luís Correia (FCUL).
  • [9] Cordeiro, Alice, 2023, EEG-based Cognitive Modeling of Speech with Deep Neuronal Networks, MA Research Plan, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, registration ongoing.
  • [10] Silva, Diogo, 2023, Hedonic Library  Of Smell by Physiological Data Analysis, MA Research Plan, Cognitive Science, University of Lisbon, registration ongoing.
  • [11] Morris et al., 2023, Levels of AGI: Operationalizing Progress on the Path to AGI, Google DeepMind, Nov 4, 2023. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.02462.pdf
  • [12] Goldman, Sharon, 2023, OpenAI’s six-member board will decide ‘when we’ve attained AGI’, Venture Beat, Nov 12, 2023, https://venturebeat.com/ai/openais-six-member-board-will-decide-when-weve-attained-agi/
  • [13] Butlin et al., 2023,  Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.08708.pdf
15h00-16h30
NLX - Grupo da Fala e Linguagem Natural / Departamento de Informática

RSS Meetup, por Nuno Lopes (IST, ULisboa).

Seminário do Departamento de Física de Ciências ULisboa, por Henrique Leitão (DHFC-FCUL, PI RUTTER ERC AdG).

Logótipo do evento

No dia 04 de abril, pelas 14h30, será gravado um episódio em direto do podcast "A Escala do Clima" de Filipe Duarte Santos (Professor Jubilado de CIÊNCIAS).

Fotografia de aluna

Uma iniciativa aberta a toda a comunidade académica da ULisboa.

Fotografia de coleção de insetos

The course includes several case studies of insect adaptation, and the most recent overview on insect evodevo, plasticity, ecophysiological responses and conservation under global change.

Título/data/local do evento e fotografia aérea de vias urbanas

Conferência da redeMOV, por Gabriel Costa Valença.

Logótipo CIE

A leading venue for presenting and discussing the latest research, industrial practice and innovations in dependable and secure computing.

Logótipos do evento/Ciências ULisboa/AEFCL e data do evento, sobre fotografia de edição anterior

O maior evento de empregabilidade de CIÊNCIAS, a decorrer nos dias 08 e 09 de abril.

Seminário do Centro de Física Teórica e Computacional, por João Neves (CFTC).

RSS Meetup, por Rodrigo Bruno (IST, ULisboa).

Título do evento

A collaborative initiative supported by five Portuguese research centers, aimed at strengthening and connecting the geometry research community in Portugal.

Equipa da Raiz Vertical Farms

Uma Experiência Única sobre Agricultura Urbana e Energia Renovável.

Título/data/local do evento e fotografia da cidade de Lisboa

The conference aims to bring together students and young researchers working in Mathematics, Statistics, and Applications with a view to fostering discussions and collaborations amongst participants.

Seminário do Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, por Amidou Sorgho (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía - IAA-CSIC, Spain).

Título "Para um ensino humanista das ciências" e logótipos das entidades organizadoras

O evento tem como tema principal "Para um ensino humanista das ciências" e conta com a participação de vários professores de CIÊNCIAS.

Microplásticos em suspensão no oceano

O curso tem como objetivo dar formação sobre a problemática da contaminação por detritos de plástico dos nossos ecossistemas, bem como alertar para os potenciais efeitos deletérios nos organismos - candidaturas até 22 de março.

Banner do Dia de Ciências 2025

A 29 de abril assinalamos o 114.º aniversário de CIÊNCIAS.

Junte-se a nós no Grande Auditório de CIÊNCIAS para uma tarde de celebração que reúne toda a comunidade da Faculdade.

Fotografia de fábrica a emitir poluição para a atmosfera

The course aims at enabling the participants to use different methods to measure the impacts of pollutants on ecosystems.

Logótipo C-Academy

O curso oferece uma base sólida sobre os fundamentos e práticas essenciais para proteger sistemas e dados num mundo cada vez mais digital - candidaturas até 13 de abril.

Banner Dia Aberto de CIÊNCIAS 2025.

Bem-vindos a Ciências ULisboa!

Um concurso de programação dirigido aos alunos do ensino secundário (11.º e 12.º anos), que visa promover a prática e o gosto pela programação.

Fotografia de Chapim-azul

The goal of this course is to provide the participants with the most recent and practical knowledge on the use of Functional Diversity.

Mão a segurar em globo de vidro

Curso acreditado pelo CCPFC para efeitos de progressão na carreira dos professores na dimensão cientifico-pedagógica dos grupos 230, 420, 510, 520 e 560, com candidaturas até 30 de abril.

Título/data/local do evento, logótipos das entidades organizadoras e fotografia de peixe

The event aims to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge among professionals to advance the understanding, collaboration and capabilities of aquaculture to respond to the impact of climate change in a rapidly changing global environment.

Uma oportunidade única para interagir com a comunidade global de computação científica, com inscrições (preço reduzido) até 02 de maio.

Páginas