Φορέας Χρηματοδότησης: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Πρόσκληση: Call for Proposals for EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2021 (HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01)

Προϋπολογισμός (€): 132.000.000

Καταληκτική ημερομηνία υποβολής: 27/10/2021

Αντικείμενο της παρούσας πρόσκλησης είναι η χρηματοδότηση συνεργατικής έρευνας και καινοτομίας σχετική με την Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη.

Αυτή η Πρόκληση είναι ανοιχτή μόνο σε προτάσεις για συνεργατικά έργα με τουλάχιστον 3 συνεργάτες σύμφωνα με τους τυπικούς όρους επιλεξιμότητας. Απαιτούνται προτάσεις για συμμόρφωση με τις αρχές της αξιόπιστης τεχνητής νοημοσύνης.

Scope:

Awareness and consciousness have been high on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research agenda for decades. Progress has been difficult because it has been hard to agree on exactly what it means to be aware. Most researches would agree though that we do not have any truly aware artificial system yet, that awareness is much more than a sensorial sophistication and that it is much more than any Artificial Intelligence as we know it. But, what is it then that a user would expect from a service or device that has ‘awareness inside’?

Most scientific and philosophical accounts of awareness are based on a human subject perspective and at an individual level. They address the question of what it means for an individual human subject to be aware of, e.g., the environment, time or oneself and how one can assess awareness in this context. The problem is relevant, certainly, since many clinical and cognitive conditions can be linked to awareness issues. The concept is also relevant to emerging technologies as it has been argued, for instance, that humans will not accept robots (or chatbots, or decision support systems) as trustable partners if they cannot ascribe some form of awareness and true understanding to them.

The individual human-centric concept of consciousness hinders the application of awareness as a measurable feature of any sufficiently complex system. The study of awareness in other species and artefacts, or even more elusive concepts such as social awareness require a new perspective applicable to many systems. It can then also serve to attack the inter-subjective state and experience of awareness (i.e., what is it like to interact with an aware robot that, most probably, does not have the same kind of awareness than the human?), or to include non-conscious objects into the sphere of awareness (e.g., to become aware of the time without looking at the watch).

For technologies, awareness principles would allow a step-up in engineering complex systems, making them more resilient, self-developing and human-centric. Awareness is a prerequisite for a real and contextualised understanding of a problem or situation and to adapt ones actions (and their consequences) to the specific circumstances. Ultimately, awareness serves the coherent and purposeful behaviour, learning, adaptation and self-development of intelligent systems over longer periods of time.

For more details, see the EIC Work Programme 2021 and the relevant Challenge Guide