The cognitive shield: internal attention and AI

​🗣 AI Talks · Online · Free · Open to everyone.

​"The cognitive shield: internal attention and AI"

​👤 About the speaker: Dr. Sam Verschooren is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway

​📌 About the talk

​Adaptive behavior requires a stable internal world model that can be flexibly updated with novel input, which relies on transitions between external and internal attention. I will first present our recent framework for attentional transitions that captures these dynamics in a novel way, from both a cognitive and neurobiological perspective. In the second part of this talk, I will attempt to leverage these insights to improve our understanding of human-AI interactions. Specifically, I highlight three ways in which AI might affect our internal models and attention dynamics: epistemic dependence, value and preference shaping, and reality testing erosion. Research in these areas is required if we want principled ways to separate healthy AI use from the dangers it can pose in contexts ranging from research and education to democratic resilience

​Organized by the I-PSI-TEC lab at the Universitat de València, these monthly online talks feature AI experts from different fields—computer science, psychology, philosophy, and beyond— who help us understand what is happening around us and what it means for our minds, our health, and our society.

​Know someone who might be interested? Please share this page with them! The Zoom link is sent to everyone who registers.

​🎥 This session will be recorded and shared online.

​📩 Questions? Contact us at ipsitecai@gmail.com