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Related papers: A Minimal Active Inference Agent

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In the last decade, the free energy principle (FEP) and active inference (AIF) have achieved many successes connecting conceptual models of learning and cognition to mathematical models of perception and action. This effort is driven by a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-11-25 Joséphine Pazem , Marius Krumm , Alexander Q. Vining , Lukas J. Fiderer , Hans J. Briegel

The free energy principle, and its corollary active inference, constitute a bio-inspired theory that assumes biological agents act to remain in a restricted set of preferred states of the world, i.e., they minimize their free energy. Under…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-15 Pietro Mazzaglia , Tim Verbelen , Ozan Çatal , Bart Dhoedt

The free energy principle (FEP) in the neurosciences stipulates that all viable agents induce and minimize informational free energy in the brain to fit their environmental niche. In this study, we continue our effort to make the FEP a more…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2021-01-25 Chang Sub Kim

Active inference is a mathematical framework for understanding how agents (biological or artificial) interact with their environments, enabling continual adaptation and decision-making. It combines Bayesian inference and free energy…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-10-02 Rithvik Prakki

Physical AI agents, such as robots and other embodied systems operating under tight and fluctuating resource constraints, remain far less capable than biological agents in open-ended real-world environments. This paper argues that Active…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-24 Bert de Vries

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) postulates that biological agents perceive and interact with their environment in order to minimize a Variational Free Energy (VFE) with respect to a generative model of their environment. The inference of a…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-04-07 Thijs van de Laar , Magnus Koudahl , Bart van Erp , Bert de Vries

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) states that under suitable conditions of weak coupling, random dynamical systems with sufficient degrees of freedom will behave so as to minimize an upper bound, formalized as a variational free energy, on…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-07-21 Chris Fields , Karl Friston , James F. Glazebrook , Michael Levin

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) describes (biological) agents as minimising a variational Free Energy (FE) with respect to a generative model of their environment. Active Inference (AIF) is a corollary of the FEP that describes how agents…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-01-03 Thijs van de Laar , Magnus Koudahl , Bert de Vries

Is there a canonical way to think of agency beyond reward maximisation? In this paper, we show that any type of behaviour complying with physically sound assumptions about how macroscopic biological agents interact with the world…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-01-24 Lancelot Da Costa , Samuel Tenka , Dominic Zhao , Noor Sajid

Active inference is a formal approach to study cognition based on the notion that adaptive agents can be seen as engaging in a process of approximate Bayesian inference, via the minimisation of variational and expected free energies.…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-08-19 Filippo Torresan , Keisuke Suzuki , Ryota Kanai , Manuel Baltieri

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) is a theoretical framework for describing how (intelligent) systems self-organise into coherent, stable structures by minimising a free energy functional. Active Inference (AIF) is a corollary of the FEP that…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-10-17 Magnus Koudahl , Thijs van de Laar , Bert de Vries

Based on a generative model (GM) and beliefs over hidden states, the free energy principle (FEP) enables an agent to sense and act by minimizing a free energy bound on Bayesian surprise. Inclusion of prior beliefs in the GM about desired…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-07-28 Thijs van de Laar , Ayça Özçelikkale , Henk Wymeersch

The Free-Energy-Principle (FEP) is an influential and controversial theory which postulates a deep and powerful connection between the stochastic thermodynamics of self-organization and learning through variational inference. Specifically,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-10-05 Beren Millidge , Anil Seth , Christopher L Buckley

Active inference, a neurally-inspired model for inferring actions based on the free energy principle (FEP), has been proposed as a unifying framework for understanding perception, action, and learning in the brain. Active inference has…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-20 Prashant Rangarajan , Rajesh P. N. Rao

The Free-Energy Principle (FEP) [1-3] has been adopted in a variety of ambitious proposals that aim to characterize all adaptive, sentient, and cognitive systems within a unifying framework. Judging by the amount of attention it has…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2024-01-18 Zahra Sheikhbahaee , Adam Safron , Casper Hesp , Guillaume Dumas

Active inference is a normative framework for explaining behaviour under the free energy principle -- a theory of self-organisation originating in neuroscience. It specifies neuronal dynamics for state-estimation in terms of a descent on…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2021-10-26 Lancelot Da Costa , Thomas Parr , Biswa Sengupta , Karl Friston

Active inference may be defined as Bayesian modeling of a brain with a biologically plausible model of the agent. Its primary idea relies on the free energy principle and the prior preference of the agent. An agent will choose an action…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-14 Jin young Shin , Cheolhyeong Kim , Hyung Ju Hwang

Expected free energy (EFE) is a central quantity in active inference which has recently gained popularity due to its intuitive decomposition of the expected value of control into a pragmatic and an epistemic component. While numerous…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-08-14 Ran Wei

Active inference, a corollary of the free energy principle, is a formal way of describing the behavior of certain kinds of random dynamical systems that have the appearance of sentience. In this chapter, we describe how active inference…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-10-11 Noor Sajid , Lancelot Da Costa , Thomas Parr , Karl Friston

The 'free energy principle' (FEP) has been suggested to provide a unified theory of the brain, integrating data and theory relating to action, perception, and learning. The theory and implementation of the FEP combines insights from…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2017-05-26 Christopher L. Buckley , Chang Sub Kim , Simon McGregor , Anil K. Seth
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