Abstract
Active inference, pioneered by Karl Friston, the world’s most frequently cited neuroscientist, is an ideal methodology for developing more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems by biomimicking the way living intelligent systems work, while overcoming the manifold limitations of today’s AI, such as big data training requirements, lifelong learning capability and explainability, to name a few. It is considered the key to true AI: “Less artificial, more intelligent,” as put by WIRED in a widely read article on Karl Friston. In the end, the acronym AI might not actually stand for artificial intelligence but for active inference.
After briefly reviewing the problem of inductive inference inherent to most of today’s AIs, we will elaborate on active inference’s potential of advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) as well as its limitations, most notably the recurrent dark-room problem, which represents a surprisingly serious challenge to active inference. Our starting point will be Alibaba’s observation made at the opening OFC plenary talk back in 2021 that today’s complex networks are more than computer science — they grow, they are life. More recently, at MWC 2025, this view was echoed by the CTIO of France’s mobile network operator, Orange, who stated that we have to completely change our networks from static to living entities. In the remainder of the seminar, we will present our research ideas and recent progress on (i) moving AGI research beyond the human brain toward the 6G world brain premised on active inference biomimicking the largest living organism on planet Earth, (ii) advancing active inference by widening its scope from biological to psychoactive agents found in plants to not only enhance the neuroplasticity of the 6G world brain but also help resolve the dark-room problem, and finally, (iii) providing a research outlook on the future of active inference 2.0 leveraging on the emerging field of quantum biology, where biological agents may be given an advantage through quantum effects.
Bio
Martin Maier is a full professor with the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique in Montréal, Canada. He was educated at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and received MSc and doctorate degrees, both with distinctions (summa cum laude), in 1998 and 2003, respectively. In 2003, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a visiting professor at Stanford University in Stanford, California, from 2006–07. He was a co-recipient of the 2009 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award. Further, he was a Marie Curie IIF Fellow of the European Commission from 2014–15. In 2017, he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in recognition of his accomplishments in research on FiWi-enhanced mobile networks. In 2017, he was named one of the three most promising scientists in the category “Contribution to a better society” of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions 2017 Prize Award of the European Commission. In 2019/2020, he held a UC3M-Banco de Santander Excellence Chair at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Madrid, Spain. In December 2023, he was awarded the 2023 Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE Communications Society Tactile Internet Technical Committee for his contribution to 6G/Next G and the design of Metaverse concepts and architectures, as well as the 2023 Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE Computer Society Bio-Inspired Computing STC for his contribution on the symbiosis between INTERnet and Human BEING (INTERBEING). Based on Stanford University’s list of the “World’s Top 2%” most cited scientists, Maier ranks among the top 2% of all scientists worldwide and has been recently awarded 2024 Highly Ranked Scholar Lifetime status by ScholarGPS as No. 2 worldwide in the area of access network (top 0.05%). He is co-author of the book Toward 6G: A New Era of Convergence and author of the sequel 6G and Onward to Next G: The Road to the Multiverse.
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