Kristinn R. Thórisson, IIIM Managing Director, and his collaborators Helgi Páll Helgason and Eric Nivel, received the 2012 Kurzweil Award for Best AGI Idea at this year’s AGI conference at Oxford University in Cambridge. We interviewed two of the paper’s authors, Helgi Páll Helgason and Kristinn R. Thórisson, regarding the award and what the next steps in their research will entail.

On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures

The paper, titled “On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures: A Design Proposal” (download from Mindmakers.org), presents arguments for super-intelligent artificial agents needing what we generally think of “attention”, and presents a blueprint for how to achieve the design and implementation of such attention mechanisms.

What significance does this award have for your future research?
Helgi: This is an invaluable validation of our work up to this point and strong motivation to further pursue research on control mechanisms and resource allocation for AGI’s. Our chances of getting our voices heard in the scientific community, finding funding for future research as well as new collaborators are also positively impacted by the award. Continue reading Kurzweil 2012 Awards Interview →