EXC 2002:  Science of Intelligence (SCIoI)

• Subject Area: Computer Science ; Educational Research ; Basic Research in Biology and Medicine ; Neurosciences ; Philosophy ; Psychology ; Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics ; Systems Engineering ; Zoology
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390523135

Intelligence shapes the world around us. Nevertheless, understanding what intelligence actually is remains one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time. Despite research efforts spanning many scientific disciplines, our understanding of intelligence remains fragmented and incomplete. The explosive progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) further heightens the urgency to understand intelligence but so far, AI has contributed little toward this goal. The Cluster of Excellence "Science of Intelligence" (SCIoI) will produce a principled understanding of intelligence, spanning the biological and artificial realms. This understanding will provide insights into the intelligence and cognition of biological agents. It will also enable the engineering of intelligent agents with novel abilities, closing the persistent performance gap on biological agents. SCIoI will develop scientific and engineering knowledge about producing robust, general, and adaptable behavior in the real world in a computationally, energy, and data efficient manner. Our approach offers an alternative to today's AIs which remain disembodied and therefore limited in their application, consume substantial amounts of natural resources, and require large amounts of data. During the first funding phase, we elaborated the conceptual and methodological foundations for SCIoI and validated them in theoretical and empirical experiments with biological and artificial agents. We united the disciplines of intelligence research into a cohesive research program, founded on unified knowledge and methods. We implemented an approach to intelligence research that considers ethics from the ground up. In the next funding phase, we will leverage this groundwork to fully specify SCIoI's characterization of intelligence. SCIoI's progress is enabled by viewing intelligence as a set of principles specifying how intelligence is built, rather than how intelligence behaves. We will explore and validate our approach for both biological and artificial species and along developmental and cultural dimensions of behavior. This approach will bring about progress in the involved disciplines as well as in SCIoI's conceptualization of intelligence. Structural measures will perpetuate SCIoI. We are founding a new department as a permanent home for SCIoI's laboratories, administrative structures, and support staff. We will implement the vision of SCIoI in teaching, expanding and perpetuating our support programs for early career researchers, including those in the Global South. We will continue building a network of intelligence researchers through collaborations with international research centers and by organizing international conferences on intelligence, creating hubs of information exchange that will promote and develop further the proposed Science of Intelligence.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Berlin
• Co-Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Participating Institution: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Freie Universität Berlin; Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung; Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie (MPI EVA); Universität Leipzig; Universität Potsdam
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Marcel Brass; Professor Dr. Oliver Brock; Professorin Dr. Katja Liebal
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman; Professor Dr.-Ing. Alan Akbik; Professorin Dr. Beryl Eusemann; Professor Dr. Guillermo Gallego; Professorin Dr. Verena V. Hafner; Nina Hanning, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Daniel Haun; Professor Dr. John Dylan Haynes; Professor Dr. Ralph Hertwig; Professor Dr. Jens Krause, Ph.D.; Ralf Kurvers, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Rebecca Lazarides; Professor Dr. Lars Lewejohann; Professorin Dr. Linda Onnasch; Professor Dr. Martin Rolfs; Dr. Pawel Romanczuk; Professor Dr. Henning Sprekeler; Professorin Dr. Christa Thöne-Reineke; Professor Dr. Marc Toussaint; Professorin Dr. Eva Wiese