Cognitive Computing vs. LLMs (w/ Mahault Albarracin)

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Apr 18, 2025

Mahault Albarracin, a PhD student at UQAM and Director of Research Strategy at VERSUS, dives into the world of cognitive computing and AI. She reveals the critical distinctions between large language models and true cognitive agents, stressing the latter's need for self-awareness. The conversation also traverses her interdisciplinary journey from sexology to cognitive science, highlighting the philosophical implications of AI's development. Additionally, Mahault touches on engineering challenges, sustainability in AI, and the importance of a sociological perspective on sentience.

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ANECDOTE

Journey from Sexology to AI

Mahault's education was broad, from sexology to anthropology, biology, and media studies before moving into AI.
She found predictive processing and active inference formalism that united her interdisciplinary interests, leading to her PhD in cognitive computing.

INSIGHT

Agential Realism and Reality

Mahault endorses agential realism and neomaterialism, emphasizing relations over independent objects in reality.
Measurement shapes reality through interactions; repetition reveals deeper structures between observer and world.

INSIGHT

Cognitive Computing vs LLMs

Cognitive computing aims to model cognition mechanisms for agents that perceive, infer, and act autonomously in the world.
LLMs just statistically generate text sequences without intrinsic world understanding or adaptive reasoning.

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