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We are pleased to announce that Professor Asada of Osaka University and Osaka University of Information Technology in Japan has been elected as an Academician of WAAC for his outstanding contributions to cognitive developmental robotics, artificial empathy, and artificial consciousness.
Professor Asada has long been devoted to exploring implementable mechanisms of consciousness and empathy in artificial systems. He has systematically proposed a brain-inspired computational framework centered on pain and touch, advocating the embedding of human-like nociceptive/tactile neural systems in robots, combined with mirror-neuron mechanisms, to drive the hierarchical emergence from emotional contagion to empathy to a sense of morality. His representative work, Artificial Pain May Induce Empathy, Morality, and Ethics in the Conscious Mind of Robots (2019), along with related reviews, has had a wide impact in academia and has become an important reference for research on artificial empathy and artificial consciousness.
- Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem
Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.
- About WAAC
The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.