Intelligent behavior depends on the ecological niche: Scaling up AI to human-like intelligence in socio-cultural environments

TL;DR

This paper argues that human-like intelligence in AI requires understanding ecological niches, emphasizing developmental and evolutionary perspectives, and proposes developmental AI modeling infant learning within socio-cultural environments.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of ecological niches in shaping intelligence and advocates for developmental AI approaches that incorporate socio-cultural dynamics.

Findings

Current AI lacks ecological and developmental context understanding.

Developmental AI can model infant learning in socio-cultural environments.

Ecological perspectives are crucial for advancing human-like AI.

Abstract

This paper outlines a perspective on the future of AI, discussing directions for machines models of human-like intelligence. We explain how developmental and evolutionary theories of human cognition should further inform artificial intelligence. We emphasize the role of ecological niches in sculpting intelligent behavior, and in particular that human intelligence was fundamentally shaped to adapt to a constantly changing socio-cultural environment. We argue that a major limit of current work in AI is that it is missing this perspective, both theoretically and experimentally. Finally, we discuss the promising approach of developmental artificial intelligence, modeling infant development through multi-scale interaction between intrinsically motivated learning, embodiment and a fastly changing socio-cultural environment. This paper takes the form of an interview of Pierre-Yves Oudeyer by Mandred Eppe, organized within the context of a KI - K{\"{u}}nstliche Intelligenz special issue in developmental robotics.