UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
             COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

                            presents

     
	       "Collective computation: The common denominator 
		      of human and artificial intelligence"
	

                       Dr. Pedro Mediano
                   (Imperial College London)

                       19 February 2025 
                        13:00 -14:00 
                          Room E251

                  Everyone is Welcome to Attend
                 Refreshments will be available
				  
				                               

Abstract:

Canonical models of computation, like Turing machines or von Neumann architectures, are highly centralised models where a single, central unit does most of the work. However, that's not how computation happens "in the wild" — in brains (and in deep neural networks), computation happens through a complex interplay of many interacting parts, in a way that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts. In this talk, I will argue that understanding computation as a collective behaviour offers a unique and useful perspective linking human and artificial intelligence.

We will first cover how to quantify collective computation through the information-theoretic concept of synergy. We will then make a brief excursion into computational neuroscience to investigate the unique neural circuitry behind synergy, and show the importance of synergy for human cognition and consciousness. Finally, we will study modern deep learning architectures to reveal commonalities between brains and machines, and to demonstrate synergy's key role in generalisation and high-level cognition.



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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://cs-colloq.cs.herts.ac.uk