Requests for Research

Requests For Research (RFRs) are selected projects that are expected to have a significant, valuable impact on state-of-the-art research and knowledge.

By publishing these RFRs, we can can engage other researchers to complete the work we can’t do by ourselves. At the current time, several of these RFR projects have been completed and written up and we add new projects all the time.

Current RFRS

Posted	Title	Status	Write ups
2023.04	Continual Few-shot reinforcement learning	Open
2023.04	Left/Right brain in an RL agent	Open
2023.04	Left/Right brain, the hippocampus and episodic learning in AI/ML	Open
2023.04	Left/Right brain, human motor control and implications for robotics	Open
2023.03	Active Vision	Open
2020.01	Self-organizing neural network hierarchies Part 2	Open
2018.06	Using Reinforcement Learning to discover attentional strategies	Open 1 project complete	Masters Thesis
2020.01	Long-range navigation without perfect information using local reinforcement learning rules	Open	N/A
2018.07	3D agent test suite	Open Platform created	Platform (PyLIS)
2018.06	Decision-Making	Open Implementation created	Implementation

Past RFRS

Posted	Title	Status	Write ups
2020.01	Improving episodic memory with disentangled representations	1 project complete	Masters Thesis
2018.09	Left and Right Neural Networks – Inspired by our Bilateral Brains	2 projects complete 1 project current	- Masters Thesis - Preprint
2018.09	Self-Organising Architectures	1 project complete	Conf. paper
2018.06	Improving Memory with a Hippocampal Model	1 project complete	Report incomplete

The RFRs presented here are jointly compiled by Cerenaut and the Whole-Brain Architecture Initiative (WBAI). Our shared objective is to foster research into general intelligence. The RFRs are selected to encourage research that we believe will help to realise human-like Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) via the whole brain architecture approach, which assumes that the path to AGI can be shortened by mimicking the macro-architecture of the brain.

The RFRs are substantial projects and we expect are best suited to individuals or groups with the following knowledge and skills:

Ability to program (e.g. simulations, technical models)
At least basic machine learning (ML) experience
Basic knowledge on the architecture of the brain (neuroscience)

But you don’t have to worry. For learning ML, there are ample materials on the Web (see our recommendations). To get some background in neuroscience, you can start with the site here (CCNBook).

More importantly, you won’t work alone. You are encouraged to contact us before you start working on the requests. Then you’ll be part of our community where you can get support including resources (such as software and data) and advice. We can also help to link you with like-minded researchers so that you can attack these problems as a team.

If you start work on one of our RFRs, please provide a link back to our page[s] when you publish your results.

Contact

Public forum (for discussion, team-building and support): Please use reddit here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BioAGI

Other inquiries: please send your message to this address: rfr [at] wba-initiative.org

FAQs

If I work on the RFR, who owns the intellectual property (IP)? Am I free to publish my work?
You (and your team) own your work and full rights to your IP. We publish these RFRs to support and guide research into areas we find interesting. If you wish, we can help to promote your work.
Of course, anywhere you like. We can provide advice on write-ups and suitable journals or conferences.
You (and your team) own your work and full rights to your IP. We publish these RFRs to support and guide research into areas we find interesting. If you wish, we can help to promote your work.
Which programming language should I use?
Since most machine learning frameworks nowadays use python, we recommend python. But if you would like to use another language, please consult us.
Which machine learning framework could I use for these RFRs?
If you don’t have a preference, we are encouraging standardization around TensorFlow or PyTorch. Otherwise, please consult us. We accept submissions in all frameworks Besides, we also offer a ROS-like modularization framework to encapsulate multiple frameworks.
Can I get a (cash) reward by doing one of the RFRs?
No, but if your research is good, we’ll tell people about it. And you may want to apply for an annual WBAI Incentive award after publishing your research.
Should I make my code open-source?
It is up to you, but if you would like it to be recognised in the research community, making it open-source would help, and that’s what we expect.