Six Stages of AI Growth: Towards A Future of Human-like Learning and Decision-Making

Have you ever imagined if AI could learn and grow like a human does? A rational AI agent grows in theory through six distinct but interconnected stages that aren’t universally accepted or identified in the AI community but are preferred among other methods.

I am trying to oversimplify it. Here’s how each stage goes:

1. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: The AI’s innate response to environmental stimuli, akin to a human’s instinctual reaction.

2. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: The AI gathers knowledge from its experiences to modify its behaviour over time.

3. 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: The AI assesses different choices, like ‘C or D?’, and picks an optimal option based on the circumstances.

4. 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Post-action, the AI reviews past decisions, musing over alternatives it could have chosen, such as ‘What if I had chosen ‘B’ over ‘A’? Would the outcome have been different or better?’

5. 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: The AI evaluates its own actions from a third-party perspective, pondering how it could improve and asking, ‘Could I have performed better in that scenario?’

6. 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬: Though theoretical, this stage suggests the AI’s ability to perceive itself from an external viewpoint, contemplating, ‘How might my actions be perceived by others?’

We have yet to move forward from deliberation.

The progression through these stages is guided and influenced by two modes of attention:

𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Guides the AI’s active processing of specific information.

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Allows the AI to gather and assimilate environmental cues subconsciously.

Imagine you’re absorbed in a book. You’re immersed in the plot (foreground attention), but you still notice the time by the chiming clock (background attention). That recognition makes you realize it’s time to start cooking dinner. This awareness is similar to an AI’s background attention, subtly processing environmental cues while focused on a primary task.

These attention modes inform the AI’s intuition and learning processes, ultimately refining its decision-making capabilities.

To ensure a harmonious interaction between humans and AI, it’s crucial that we intentionally program AI and reach to all these stages. This enables the AI to better understand, align with, and effectively embody human values.

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