After several rounds of intense discussions by ZJU experts in philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, psychology and sociology, the 10 cutting-edge and challenging scientific questions were released today with a view to inspiring fresh insights in domestic and international academia and promoting inter-disciplinary research into consciousness, the brain and AI.
Question #1: What is the biological basis of consciousness?
Consciousness was once confined to philosophy, but with the development of neuroscience, scientists have gradually engaged in research into the nature of consciousness. It is generally accepted that that the material basis of consciousness is the neuron and its biological basis is the interplay between multiple neural networks in the brain. Other studies contend that consciousness is primarily triggered by a relatively independent brain structure (called the consciousness switch). The biological basis of consciousness and a series of other related problems have yet to be further explored. For example, is there merely one material basis of consciousness? Can consciousness be generated on another vehicle other than a neuron?
Question #2: Is “artificial consciousness” possible?
The evolution from artificial intelligence to artificial consciousness should involve incorporating human emotions and intentions into the artificial consciousness and mind system. Attempts can be made to tackle the complicated situation where a wide spectrum of consciousness (representation, emotion, volition) and find the corresponding qualia in the nervous system by controlling the complexity of the neural circuit.
Question #3: How can a machine understand human emotions?
In a society teeming with androids, it is essential to cope with the natural interaction between robots and the human species so that robots can be truly assimilated into people’s lives and produce sympathy, empathy and other natural human behaviors. One of the crucial challenges is to find out how a machine understands the expression of human emotions.
Question #4: What is the psychological mechanism of strong AI?
Weak AI can compare with or even surpass humans in solving specific problems, but it is also beset with a series of problems, such as poor universality and low learning efficiency. To address these problems, it is necessary to go back to the “initial core” of strong AI—to study the psychological mechanism of human intelligence, to explore why humans can tap into limited computing power to achieve general intelligence and to discover how to achieve efficient learning in the case of small data.
Question #5: What is the information mechanism of consciousness?
Consciousness refers to one’s ability to experience his or her existence rather than the ability to record or respond to stimuli like robots. Considerable importance should thus be attached to the subjective, structured, specific, unified and definitive properties of information processing.
Question #6: Can brain-computer integration produce superintelligence?
The brain-computer integration system is based on the brain-computer interface to achieve the interaction, adaptation and collaboration between the brain and the computer, thereby able to merge biological intelligence and machine intelligence. Its ultimate goal is to create a more potent type of intelligence. Given the complementarity between machine intelligence and human intelligence, at the very core is how to achieve the interconnection between biological intelligence and machine intelligence, integrate their assets and create a better-performing genre of intelligence.
Question #7: What is the neural mechanism of emotions?
Emotions are a specific state in which an individual responds to a certain situation. The generation of feelings and emotions entails a wide range of of brain functions, such as sensation, perception, motivation, reward and assessment, and the modification and regulation of memory and other related cognitive processes. The formation of human intelligence and the establishment of complex social systems are bound up with the evolution and reinforcement of feelings and emotions. The human species is also constantly and extensively plagued by mental illnesses related to feelings and emotions. Therefore, studying the brain mechanism of feelings and emotions is one of the most intriguing directions in the domain of brain research, and its findings will also provide new strategies and means for the diagnosis and treatment of related mental diseases.
Question #8: What is the biological basis of learning?
Animals need to adapt to environmental changes, and learning is the process of encoding environmental information into experiences via the nervous system. Memory closely related to learning is the process by which the nervous system stores and extracts these experiences. Research into the neurobiological mechanism of learning and memory is one of the most prominent subjects in the field of neuroscience, and it is also the key to elucidating cognitive dysfunction.
Question #9: What is the neural mechanism of sub-consciousness?
Sub-consciousness refers to a mental activity existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness. It is labeled as the most complicated mental phenomenon and may well become a key step to deciphering the neural mechanism of human consciousness. With the development of such interdisciplinary research as cognitive neuroscience and brain science, as well as the advancement of brain mapping technology and genetic technology, there may be a greater breakthrough in the dimension of the neural mechanism of sub-consciousness.
Question #10: What is the human brain processing mechanism of decision-making?
Research into the brain mechanism of decision-making has riveted more and more attention, but the neural mechanism of preference in decision-making remains enigmatic. Systematic research in this field will be instrumental to not only revealing the neural basis of the value-balancing process, but also predicting the human decision-making tendency according to neural signals as well as diagnosing and treating related abnormal brain diseases.
Background
In September 2018, Zhejiang University (ZJU) announced the Convergence Research Project for Brain Research and Artificial Intelligence (AI), referred to as Intelligence Convergence (IC). ZJU IC focuses on research into the convergence and integration between brain research and AI, which opens up an exploration into the nature and law of cognition, consciousness and intelligence by bringing together a galaxy of experts in various domains, such as life science, information science, material science and social sciences.
In April 2019, ZJU held a roundtable forum on “Consciousness, the Brain and Artificial Intelligence”. CAS Fellow WU Zhaohui, CAS Fellow DUAN Shumin and Prof. NI Liangkang delivered keynote speeches on “consciousness” from the perspectives of computer science, neuroscience and philosophy respectively and put forward a series of challenging cross-disciplinary issues.