LSD and psilocybin disrupt rigid cognitive patterns, likely by altering Default Mode Network activity, reducing latent inhibition, increasing divergent thinking, and promoting implicit learning. Artificial intelligence can mimic these disruptions to enhance human creativity by introducing novel associations, reframing familiar information, and facilitating unconscious cognitive shifts. Risks include dependency, ethical concerns, and output homogenization due to bias. Integrating psychedelic-inspired cognitive mechanisms into AI design may foster innovative thinking and adaptive problem-solving, provided ethical and practical issues are addressed.
Artificial agents trained via reinforcement learning in a virtual environment can develop rudimentary forms of world and self models, which are key components of core consciousness as defined by Antonio Damasio. The agent learned to play a video game and explore its environment; probes—feedforward classifiers—used the agent's neural network activations to predict the agent's spatial position. Results demonstrate that the agent formed preliminary world and self models, suggesting a pathway toward machine consciousness. This provides foundational insights into artificial agents mirroring aspects of human consciousness.