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Time

Monday 27 April 2026, at 13:00 - , at

Location

IMC meeting room

By Christine Parsons

Abstract:

The idea that human cognition is, or can be understood as, a form of computation is a useful conceptual tool for cognitive science. It was a foundational assumption during the birth of cognitive science as a multidisciplinary field, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of its contributing fields. One conception of AI in this context is as a provider of computational tools (frameworks, concepts, formalisms, models, proofs, simulations, etc.) that support theory building in cognitive science. The contemporary field of AI, however, has taken the theoretical possibility of explaining human cognition as a form of computation to imply the practical feasibility of realising human(-like or -level) cognition in factual computational systems, and the field frames this realisation as a short-term inevitability. Yet, as we formally prove herein, creating systems with human(-like or -level) cognition is intrinsically computationally intractable. This means that any factual AI systems created in the short-run are at best decoys. When we think these systems capture something deep about ourselves and our thinking, we induce distorted and impoverished images of ourselves and our cognition. In other words, AI in current practice is deteriorating our theoretical understanding of cognition rather than advancing and enhancing it. The situation could be remediated by releasing the grip of the currently dominant view on AI and by returning to the idea of AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science. In reclaiming this older idea of AI, however, it is important not to repeat conceptual mistakes of the past (and present) that brought us to where we are today.

Talk based on published paper:

van Rooij, I., Guest, et al. (2024) Reclaiming AI as a Theoretical Tool for Cognitive Science. Computation Brain & Behavior 7, 616–636 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42113-024-00217-5

Bio

Iris van Rooij is a Professor of Computational Cognitive Science in the School of Artificial Intelligence at Radboud University, The Netherlands. She is PI at the Donders Centre for Cognition, Chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, and Guest Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Her research interests lie at the interface of psychology, philosophy and theoretical computer science, with a particular forcus on the computational scope and limits of cognition (including scientists’ cognition). By taking a meta-theoretical perspective, her research group also leads a critical AI literacy initiative.

Talk by Prof. Iris van Rooij

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