Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Stephen M. Fiore (University of Central Florida), “Studying Artificial Social Intelligence: Understanding and Examining Social Cognitive Processes in Human-Machine Collaborations”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

In this presentation Stephen M. Fiore will provide an overview of a body of research in social cognition and its relation to developing artificial social intelligence. In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), an important research direction is the development of systems that can work alongside and collaborate with humans as actual teammates.

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Maarten Sap (Carnegie Mellon University), “Artificial Social Intelligence? On the Challenges of Socially Aware and Ethically Informed LLMs”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

Modern AI systems such as LLMs are pervasive and helpful, but do they really have the social intelligence to seamlessly and safely engage in interactions with humans? In this talk, Maarten Sap will delve into the limits of social intelligence of LLMs and how we can measure and anticipate their risks. He will introduce Sotopia,

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Goldie Nejat (University of Toronto), “Paging the Socially Assistive Robots: Intelligent and Persuasive Social Robots for Healthcare and Beyond”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

The world is experiencing a silver tsunami: rapid population aging. As the world’s older population significantly increases, dementia is becoming one of the fastest growing diseases, with no cure in sight. Socially assistive robots are a unique disruptive innovation that are becoming a crucial part of everyday society, especially in a post-pandemic world, aiding people

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Tucker Hermans (University of Utah, NVIDIA), “Learning and Planning With Relational Dynamics Models for Robot Manipulation”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

More info will follow soon. This talk will take place as part of SCIoI member Svetlana Levit’s seminar “Selected Topics in Robot Learning,” which explores how advances in machine learning are helping robots operate in new environments, learn new behaviors, and adapt to changing conditions.

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Agnieszka Wykowska (the Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa), “Using Humanoid Robots To Study Human Cognition”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

Humanoid robots have recently received a lot of attention and enthusiasm in the robotics community and beyond. Indeed, with new technological advancements, they hold the promise to become our assistants in daily lives, as general-purpose machines. In this talk, however, Agnieszka Wykowska will focus on a different, less explored, way of using humanoids - as

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Ralf Kurvers (MPI for Human Development), “Individual, Social and Ecological Drivers of Human Collective Foraging”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

Foraging complexity and competitive social challenges are considered key drivers of human cognition. Yet, we still have a poor understanding of the decision-making mechanisms underlying foraging behavior, especially in social contexts. In this talk, I will combine immersive lab experiments, field work using high-resolution tracking, and computational and agent-based models to uncover the mechanisms guiding

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Marina Papadopoulou (Tuscia University), “Across the Swarm-Verse: The Self-Organization of Animal Collectives on the Move”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

From the daily movement of primate troops to the mesmerizing murmurations of starling flocks in the sky, the dynamics of animal groups on the move fascinate us with the mystery of their underlying social interactions. In this talk, I will first showcase how we combine empirical data and computational models based on self-organization to understand

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Michael Levin (Tufts University), “Communication With Intelligence in Unconventional Embodiments: Bioelectricity as a Case Study”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

Embodiment is critical for intelligence; however, the traditional concept of embodiment as movement in 3-dimensional space covers only a small slice of the way biology exploits embodiment. In this talk, I will present a framework for understanding intelligence more broadly, and show how the multiscale competency of bodies navigates many different kinds of spaces. I

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Pawel Romanczuk (Science of Intelligence)

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

More details to follow. This talk is part of David Mezey's course “Introduction to Modeling Collective Behavior, ” a seminar on collective behavior research, combined with multiple interactive elements.     Image created with DALL-E by Maria Ott.

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Mate Nagy (MTA-ELTE Lendület Collective Behaviour Research Group, Budapest)

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

More details to follow. This talk is part of David Mezey's course “Introduction to Modeling Collective Behavior, ” a seminar on collective behavior research, combined with multiple interactive elements.       Image created with DALL-E by Maria Ott.

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Jacob Davidson (Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Konstanz)

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

More details to follow. This talk is part of David Mezey's course “Introduction to Modeling Collective Behavior, ” a seminar on collective behavior research, combined with multiple interactive elements.       Image created with DALL-E by Maria Ott.

Hot Topics in Intelligence Research

Cornelia Fermüller (University of Maryland), “Computational Principles of Embodied Intelligence for Robust Motion Perception and Action”

SCIoI, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Room 2.057

Abstract Understanding the computational principles of embodied intelligence is central to advancing robotic systems that perceive and act in complex environments. This talk explores key principles—low power consumption, robustness, and generalizability—as they emerge in the context of motion perception and action. For visual navigation, evidence is presented that challenges the conventional SLAM paradigm, which relies