Authors:
Giulio Prevedello
1
;
2
;
Luis Marcos-Vidal
3
;
Emanuele Brugnoli
2
;
4
and
Pietro Gravino
1
;
2
Affiliations:
1
Sony Computer Science Laboratories Paris, Paris, France
;
2
Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy
;
3
Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain
;
4
Sony Computer Science Laboratories Rome - Joint Initiative CREF-SONY, Rome, Italy
Keyword(s):
Awareness, Information Access, Structural Connectivity, Functional Connectivity, Operational Connectivity, Intrinsic Ignition, Conditional Mutual Information.
Abstract:
With the increasing prevalence of artificial systems in society, it is imperative to ensure transparency in machine decision processes. To better elucidate their decisions, artificial systems must possess an awareness of the information they handle. This includes the understanding of information flow, integration and impact on the final outcome. A specific facet of awareness, termed access-consciousness, denotes the ability of information to be utilised in reasoning and the rational control of action (and speech). This study proposes a method for measuring access to information within a system by examining the communication dynamics among its components, specifically focusing on connectivity. To achieve this, we initially delineate the various types of connectivity in the brain and then propose their translation to artificial systems. Structural connections are highlighted as mechanisms enabling one component to access information from another. Additionally, we explore functional con
nectivity, which gauges the extent to which information from one component is utilised by another. Finally, operational connectivity is introduced to describe how information propagates from one component to the entire system. This framework aims to contribute to a clearer understanding of information access in both biological and artificial systems.
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