Tagged: Artificial Consciousness

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) hereby appoints Professor Chunhui Wang as Chief Data Officer (CDO). Professor Wang is an internationally renowned expert in the rule of law for the internet and data, data governance and compliance, and the regulation of generative artificial intelligence. He has extensive scholarly work and practical policy experience in areas including cybersovereignty, the innovative development of data as a factor of production, cross-border data flows, personal information protection, and AI governance.

Professor Chunhui Wang currently serves as President of the International Data Association (IDA); Director of the Digital Economy Research Institute at the United Nations World Silk Road Forum; Chief Expert for Decision-Making Consultation at the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST); member of the Expert Committee on the Information and Communications Economy under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT); and Vice Chair of the World Association for Artificial Consciousness (WACA). He has long been committed to advancing the rule-of-law–based and internationalized development of the data-factor market. He is the first scholar globally to propose that the boundaries of international law in cyberspace sovereignty should be defined by the “right of cyber-territory” and to recommend incorporating this concept into the United Nations Charter. He took the lead in introducing such concepts as “data factor,” “data economy,” and “shared ownership of data,” which have been reviewed and registered by China’s national copyright authority. He argues that the value creation of data resources lies in the unity of use value and (exchange) value, and he advocates promoting the secure governance and innovative development of the data-factor market through the rule of law. In the development and utilization of public data resources, he has put forward regulatory proposals such as a “dynamic fair-competition review” for the public data-factor market, providing important theoretical support for authorized operations of public data and for fair competition. In the field of AI applications, he has argued that prompt engineering is the bridge of communication between humans and AI systems: humans must input carefully designed prompts so that AI can accurately understand human intent and efficiently perform various specific tasks. As Chief Data Officer, Professor Chunhui Wang will be responsible for building a compliant data-asset system and audit framework to support research on artificial consciousness, helping to achieve controllable, verifiable, and responsible development of artificial consciousness systems.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

WAAC’s membership spans 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, covering countries and regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from renowned research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—are also involved.

• About WAAC

World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/): A global academic institution founded in 2025 in Paris. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international cooperation on artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy; to release open research, policy recommendations, and evaluation standards. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. WAAC’s academic system consists of one hundred Honorary Academicians and multiple Permanent Academicians, bringing together leading scholars from around the world in this field.

We are pleased to announce that May-Britt Moser, Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, has been elected as an Academician of WAAC for her outstanding contributions to spatial cognitive neuroscience and the brain’s positioning system.

Professor Moser is renowned for her pioneering research on grid cells, which revealed a key neural coding mechanism for spatial localization and navigation and led to the shared 2014 Nobel Prize. Her long-standing focus on the hippocampal–entorhinal circuit and space/time representations has provided solid biological inspiration for spatial representation learning, autonomous navigation, and contextual memory in artificial systems, advancing research on artificial consciousness and interpretable intelligent agents.

• 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.

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.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Nicola S. Clayton—Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, elected 2010)—has been elected as an Academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for her outstanding contributions to corvid cognition, future planning, and signs of consciousness.

Using corvids (such as the western scrub-jay) as model species, Professor Clayton has long and systematically revealed episodic-like memory and future-oriented planning in nonhuman animals: her team provided the first behavioral evidence of “what–where–when” memory in Nature (1998), and further showed in Nature (2007) that scrub-jays can prepare for tomorrow, challenging the view that future planning is unique to humans. These studies offer milestone evidence for understanding animal intelligence and indicators of consciousness, and have profoundly influenced the development of comparative cognition.

• 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.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos—Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy at The University of Chicago and a core member of the interdisciplinary programs in Neuroscience and Computational Neuroscience—has been elected as an Academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his outstanding contributions to motor cortex coding, population neurocomputation, and brain–computer interfaces (BCIs).

Professor Hatsopoulos has long been devoted to uncovering how the motor cortex encodes and generates movement. His team proposed and validated the “movement fragments”/preferred-trajectory coding view: individual motor-cortex neurons exhibit selectivity for time-evolving movement trajectories rather than merely tuning to instantaneous kinematic parameters, helping drive a paradigm shift from “static tuning” to “temporal trajectory” frameworks. In BCIs and neuroprosthetics, his group has significantly enhanced device stability and usability through closed-loop sensory feedback and population-activity decoding, with multiple University of Chicago news and research reports demonstrating how tactile/proprioceptive feedback improves performance and its potential for clinical translation.

• 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.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Nilli Lavie of the University College London (UCL), Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences, has been elected an Academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) in recognition of her pioneering contributions to research on attention, perceptual load, and the relationship between attention and consciousness.

Professor Lavie has long focused on the mechanisms of human attentional selection and consciousness, systematically proposing and developing Load Theory: under high perceptual load, individuals’ ability to process irrelevant stimuli is significantly reduced, giving rise to phenomena such as distraction suppression and “inattentional/unaware” effects. This theory has been landmark in reconciling the early–late selection debate and in explaining distraction and misses in complex real-world environments. Building on this foundation, Professor Lavie leads UCL’s Attention and Cognitive Control laboratory in cross-disciplinary work spanning cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling, and applied settings (e.g., human–machine interaction in driving, distraction management in education), advancing a tight theory–evidence loop on the relationship between attention and consciousness. She has also been elected to the British Academy (FBA) and recognized with honors from organizations such as the British Psychological Society and the Experimental Psychology Society.

• 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.

We are pleased to announce that Maiken Nedergaard, Co-Director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine (CTN) at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Professor of Glial Cell Biology at the University of Copenhagen, has been elected as an Academician of WAAC for her pioneering contributions to astrocytes and the glymphatic system, as well as the mechanisms of sleep-dependent clearance of brain metabolites.

Over the years, Professor Nedergaard has advanced a research program centered on “glia — glymphatic system — sleep-driven clearance — clinical translation,” building an evidential chain from basic science to application: in 2012, her team reported in Science Translational Medicine the brain’s glymphatic system, showing that cerebrospinal fluid can enter and exchange with the parenchyma via perivascular pathways; in 2013, in Science, they showed that sleep or anesthesia expands the interstitial space and markedly enhances clearance, providing a direct physiological account of sleep’s restorative function. Subsequent work in reviews and clinical imaging/modeling has continued to extend the field, helping shape evaluation paradigms and intervention strategies anchored in testable “physiological phenotypes of consciousness,” and offering key levers for comparative research on “consciousness–state–function” across artificial and biological systems.

• 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.

We are pleased to announce that Maiken Nedergaard, Co-Director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine (CTN) at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Professor of Glial Cell Biology at the University of Copenhagen, has been elected as an Academician of WAAC for her pioneering contributions to astrocytes and the glymphatic system, as well as the mechanisms of sleep-dependent clearance of brain metabolites.

Over the years, Professor Nedergaard has advanced a research program centered on “glia — glymphatic system — sleep-driven clearance — clinical translation,” building an evidential chain from basic science to application: in 2012, her team reported in Science Translational Medicine the brain’s glymphatic system, showing that cerebrospinal fluid can enter and exchange with the parenchyma via perivascular pathways; in 2013, in Science, they showed that sleep or anesthesia expands the interstitial space and markedly enhances clearance, providing a direct physiological account of sleep’s restorative function. Subsequent work in reviews and clinical imaging/modeling has continued to extend the field, helping shape evaluation paradigms and intervention strategies anchored in testable “physiological phenotypes of consciousness,” and offering key levers for comparative research on “consciousness–state–function” across artificial and biological systems.

• 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.

We are pleased to announce that Ron Chrisley, Professor of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence in the School of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Sussex and Director of the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS), has been elected an Academician of WAAC for his systematic contributions to machine consciousness and theories of representation, as well as his construction of methods–architectures–experimental paradigms for complex artificial systems.

Over the years, Professor Chrisley has pursued a research program spanning machine consciousness—synthetic phenomenology—virtual-machine architectures—virtualist representation, building an evidence chain from philosophy to implementable computational architectures: together with Aaron Sloman, he advanced a virtual-machine framework for consciousness, emphasizing self-monitoring and reportability within multi-level software architectures (Virtual Machines and Consciousness); he articulated synthetic phenomenology, advocating the use of artificial agents (robots/programs) to characterize and test attributable phenomenal experience; and with Robert W. Clowes he developed “virtualist representation,” offering a new integrative pathway in debates over experience and representation. Taken together, this body of work has provided methodological and technical instruments for testable characterizations of conscious phenotypes, architectural requirements, and evaluation criteria.

• 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.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Takaaki Kajita—Distinguished University Professor at the University of Tokyo and former Director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR)—has been elected an Academician of WAAC (World Academy for Artificial Consciousness), in recognition of his systematic contributions to the discovery of atmospheric neutrino oscillations and to underground, ultra–large-volume detection experiments.

Over the years, Professor Kajita has advanced a research program centered on “neutrinos–detection–oscillation,” building a chain of evidence from methods to applications: within the Super-Kamiokande collaboration he led the atmospheric-neutrino analysis, and a milestone 1998 paper in Physical Review Letters reported a zenith-angle–dependent deficit of muon neutrinos and interpreted it as oscillations, laying the experimental foundation for the claim that neutrinos have mass; his 2015 Nobel Lecture and subsequent reviews traced the arc from the Neutrino’98 announcement through parameter determination and long-baseline confirmations; and during his tenure at the University of Tokyo’s ICRR (Director, 2008–2022) he continually advanced the Kamioka underground experiments and cross-disciplinary collaborations, serving as the leader of the KAGRA gravitational-wave project and establishing a complete chain from ultra-weak signal detection and cross-scale calibration to statistical inference. Taken together, this body of work not only reshaped the standard picture of particle physics, but also provides a testable large-scale detection–inference paradigm for modeling and validating “consciousness cues”—such as selective responsiveness, resource allocation, and global coordination—in complex engineered systems.

• 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.