An Ontogenetic Perspective to Scaling Sensorimotor Intelligence

1. Cynthia B. Ferrell and Charles C. Kemp MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab An Ontogenetic Perspective to Scaling Sensorimotor Intelligence

2. Definitions • on.tog.e.ny 1: the development or course of development of an individual organism • on.tol.o.gy 1: a branch of metaphysics relating to the nature and relations of being 2: a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of existence

3. What is Scaling Sensorimotor Intelligence? • Goal - design a system which achieves human intelligence • Sensorimotor intelligence should scale as it does in humans • Human intelligence is very different than rat intelligence • We Need a New Design Methodology

4. The Evolutionary Approach • The design path • insects • reptiles • rats • dogs • dolphins • chimpanzees • humans

5. The Ontogenetic Approach • Piaget’s Stages • 1st month (adaptive reflexes) • infant begins to descriminate between different perceptual input, and reflexes adapt to these new perceptual states • child adapts sucking reflex to fingers and bottle • 1st to 4th month (primary circular reactions) • infant chains adaptive reflexes together, often tending toward repetition • child learns to bring hand to mouth and then suck the hand • starts visually guided reaching at the end of the 4th month • 4th to 7th month (secondary circular reactions) • infant chains primary circular reactions together • child may bat overhead toy to see it move and make noise

6. The Basic Ontogenetic Design Methodology • Look at the developmental psychology literature • Hypothesize the skills the child is learning • Start from the beginning of development • Run the system • See how far the system gets • Start over • Redesign the system, try to make it make it through more stages of development

7. Evolutionary Path well hidden large jumps required systems satisfy an ecological niche provides sporadic and unclear measures of progress Comparison of Design Paths to Human Intelligence • Ontogenetic Path • readily observable • incremental • systems must scale themselves • provides a good measure of progress

8. So What? • A researcher needs more than a good path of design goals • What insights does this approach yield?

9. The Learning Path is Important • incremental learning (music, sport) • what makes a good learning path, more than the algorithm. constrain, bias, complexity match • how the developmental learning path is specified • embodiment • epigenesis, differentiation of input, output, and goals • situatedness, the environment is important

10. Situatedness and the Environment • designed for adult supervision • controls the infant • feed • protect • clothe • locomote • regulates environmental complexity • provides most of the important stimuli • can teach many skills

11. Embodiment • Progressive increase in the degrees of freedom • eyes only • neck also • arms • grasp (use pictures) • locomotion

12. Goals, Tasks and Emotions • regulate complexity • only attempt what is simple to learn • through attentional processes • boredom • frustration • excitement • through the parent • crying • smiling

13. Complexity of Input and Output Representations • course to fine • large classes of input stimuli to more smaller classes

14. Body, Environment, and Mind Increase in Complexity • Body provides more refined output space, locomotion • Enviroment becomes much more complex, less fear to enter into new situations, independence • Mind develops more complex goals, and more refined input representations, the expert example • All Closely coupled

15. Overview • An ontogenetic approach • dictates a distinctive and valuable design path • leads to valuable design methodologies • provides valuable insights into self-scaling intelligent systems • embodiment • situatedness • goal-oriented action