Search Papers | Poster Sessions | All Posters

Poster A159 in Poster Session A - Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Johnson Ice Rink

[GAC update] Use and Usability: concepts of representations in philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science

Richard D. Lange¹, Ben Baker², Andrew Richmond³, Nikolaus Kriegeskorte⁴, Rosa Cao⁵, Xaq Pitkow⁶, Odelia Schwartz⁷, Alessandro Achille⁸; ¹Dept. of Computer Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, ²Dept. of Philosophy, Colby College, ³Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University, ⁴Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University, ⁵Dept. of Philosophy, Stanford University, ⁶Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, ⁷Dept. of Computer Science, University of Miami, ⁸AWS AI Labs

Internal representations play a central role in the study of both biological and artificial intelligence, as well as the philosophy of mind. Across neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, and philosophy, a recurring theme is that representations not only carry information but should be “useful” for or “usable” by an agent in some sense. Here, we review how the “usefulness” of representations has been conceptualized and how it figures into different conceptions of representation. We identify and explore three aspects of use and usability: representations may or may not have content that is useful, they may or may not be in a format that is usable, and they may or may not be used downstream. We organize existing perspectives on how to think about neural representations into three “levels,” each adding assumptions and restrictions on the concept of representation. Our account is meant to give readers an appreciation for the diversity of notions of “neural representations,” help them navigate the vast and multi-disciplinary literature on the topic, and help them clarify the appropriate notion of representation for their own investigations. This paper is the result of a Generative Adversarial Collaboration that began at the CCN conference in 2021, originally titled “What makes representations ‘useful’?”. Acknowledgements: Nicholas Shea

Keywords: GAC