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Inspired by the concept of active learning, we propose active inference$\unicode{x2013}$a methodology for statistical inference with machine-learning-assisted data collection. Assuming a budget on the number of labels that can be collected,…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-04-09 Tijana Zrnic , Emmanuel J. Candès

In this paper we present a concise mathematical description of active inference in discrete time. The main part of the paper serves as a basic introduction to the topic, including a detailed example of the action selection mechanism. The…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-20 Jesse van Oostrum , Carlotta Langer , Nihat Ay

Active Inference is a theory of action arising from neuroscience which casts action and planning as a bayesian inference problem to be solved by minimizing a single quantity - the variational free energy. Active Inference promises a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-07-10 Beren Millidge

This technical note considers the sampling of outcomes that provide the greatest amount of information about the structure of underlying world models. This generalisation furnishes a principled approach to structure learning under a…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2025-12-25 Karl Friston , Lancelot Da Costa , Alexander Tschantz , Conor Heins , Christopher Buckley , Tim Verbelen , Thomas Parr

Active inference is a probabilistic framework for modelling the behaviour of biological and artificial agents, which derives from the principle of minimising free energy. In recent years, this framework has successfully been applied to a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-07-13 Lancelot Da Costa , Noor Sajid , Thomas Parr , Karl Friston , Ryan Smith

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

Active inference is a unifying theory for perception and action resting upon the idea that the brain maintains an internal model of the world by minimizing free energy. From a behavioral perspective, active inference agents can be seen as…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-01-17 Pietro Mazzaglia , Tim Verbelen , Bart Dhoedt

Deep active inference has been proposed as a scalable approach to perception and action that deals with large policy and state spaces. However, current models are limited to fully observable domains. In this paper, we describe a deep active…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-08 Otto van der Himst , Pablo Lanillos

Active inference helps us simulate adaptive behavior and decision-making in biological and artificial agents. Building on our previous work exploring the relationship between active inference, well-being, resilience, and sustainability, we…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-06-13 Mahault Albarracin , Ines Hipolito , Maria Raffa , Paul Kinghorn

Optimal control of complex environments with robotic systems faces two complementary and intertwined challenges: efficient organization of sensory state information and far-sighted action planning. Because the reinforcement learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-30 Abdullah Akgül , Gulcin Baykal , Manuel Haußmann , Mustafa Mert Çelikok , Melih Kandemir

Automated decision-making under uncertainty requires balancing exploitation and exploration. Classical methods treat these separately using heuristics, while Active Inference unifies them through Expected Free Energy (EFE) minimization.…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-11-25 Wouter W. L. Nuijten , Mykola Lukashchuk

Active inference has emerged as an alternative approach to control problems given its intuitive (probabilistic) formalism. However, despite its theoretical utility, computational implementations have largely been restricted to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-03-01 Aswin Paul , Noor Sajid , Manoj Gopalkrishnan , Adeel Razi

We present a categorical formulation of the cognitive frameworks of Predictive Processing and Active Inference, expressed in terms of string diagrams interpreted in a monoidal category with copying and discarding. This includes diagrammatic…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2023-08-03 Sean Tull , Johannes Kleiner , Toby St Clere Smithe

Flexible, goal-directed behavior is a fundamental aspect of human life. Based on the free energy minimization principle, the theory of active inference formalizes the generation of such behavior from a computational neuroscience…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-08-03 Fedor Scholz , Christian Gumbsch , Sebastian Otte , Martin V. Butz

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

Active inference is emerging as a possible unifying theory of perception and action in cognitive and computational neuroscience. On this theory, perception is a process of inferring the causes of sensory data by minimising the error between…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2022-03-10 Manuel Baltieri , Christopher L. Buckley

Active inference is a state-of-the-art framework in neuroscience that offers a unified theory of brain function. It is also proposed as a framework for planning in AI. Unfortunately, the complex mathematics required to create new models --…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-11 Théophile Champion , Marek Grześ , Howard Bowman

The central tenet of reinforcement learning (RL) is that agents seek to maximize the sum of cumulative rewards. In contrast, active inference, an emerging framework within cognitive and computational neuroscience, proposes that agents act…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-03-02 Alexander Tschantz , Beren Millidge , Anil K. Seth , Christopher L. Buckley

Autonomous robotic navigation in real-world environments requires exploration to acquire environmental information as well as goal-directed navigation in order to reach specified targets. Active inference (AIF) based on the free-energy…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Riko Yokozawa , Kentaro Fujii , Yuta Nomura , Shingo Murata

Active inference is a theory that underpins the way biological agent's perceive and act in the real world. At its core, active inference is based on the principle that the brain is an approximate Bayesian inference engine, building an…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-03-09 Ozan Çatal , Samuel Wauthier , Tim Verbelen , Cedric De Boom , Bart Dhoedt