Xu Ji
Mila, Université de Montréal
Integrated information Consciousness is intrinsic causal power, measured as integrated information
Xu Ji is a doctoral researcher at Mila and the Université de Montréal working on machine consciousness through the lens of theory of mind. The research question is structural. Many theories of consciousness tie experience to self-models, and self-models gain their content through contrast with models of other minds, so how a machine represents other agents bears on what kinds of awareness it can carry. His work on theory of mind in artificial systems and on multi-agent interaction addresses that structure directly, and he is a co-author of the Butlin and Long indicator-properties report, this site’s nineteen researcher checklist.
The report’s agency indicator, learning from feedback and pursuing goals under flexible control, is adjacent to Ji’s question. An agent that models the minds around it is doing something specific with its self-model, and theories from higher-order thought to attention schema assign consciousness-relevant work to exactly that machinery.
For this site, Ji belongs to the group that turns consciousness science into AI assessment, and his corner of it, other-minds modeling in machines, is where the site’s coverage of introspection and self-report evidence meets the theory of mind literature.
Known for. Theory of mind in machines, AI consciousness and other minds, joint attention in multi-agent systems, indicator properties collaboration
Coverage on this site
Related researchers
- Patrick ButlinEleos AI Research. Previously the Global Priorities Institute, OxfordLead author of the indicator properties framework for assessing consciousness in AI systems
- Robert LongEleos AI Research (Executive Director)AI welfare research, the 14 indicator framework for AI consciousness assessment, the Eleos Conference on AI Consciousness and Welfare
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David ChalmersNew York University. Co-director, Center for Mind, Brain and ConsciousnessNaming the hard problem of consciousness, and the philosophical zombie argument
- Karl FristonUniversity College London. Chief Scientist, VERSES AIThe free energy principle and active inference
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Jonathan BirchLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceThe Edge of Sentience, the LSE Criteria, and the run-ahead principle
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Yoshua BengioMila, Université de MontréalThe Consciousness Prior, deep learning foundations, Turing Award, global workspace-inspired representation learning
Xu Ji is listed with the other integrated information theorists, who hold that consciousness is intrinsic causal power, measured as integrated information. The theory family behind that position is set out in the index of consciousness theories. Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers.