Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures for AI Society

Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA) are computational frameworks for building intelligent agents that are inspired from biological intelligence. Biological intelligent systems, notably animals such as humans, have many qualities that are often lacking in artificially designed systems including robustness, flexibility, and adaptability to environments. At a point in time where visibility into naturally intelligent systems is exploding thanks to modern brain imaging and recording techniques, our ability to learn from nature and to build biologically inspired intelligent systems has never been greater. At the same time, the growth in computer science and technology has unleashed enough computational power, that an explosion of intelligent applications from augmented reality to naturally speaking intelligent virtual agents is now certain. The growth in these fields challenges the computational replication of all essential aspects of the human mind (the BICA Challenge), an endeavor which is interdisciplinary in nature and promises to yield bi-directional flow of understanding between all involved disciplines.

The distinguishing feature of this conference is the combination of its broad multidisciplinary nature with the narrow focus on research and technological achievements, aimed at advancing us toward the BICA Challenge. BICA*AI is famous for its friendly, informal atmosphere, for its spirit of excitement and opportunity, providing the fruitful grounds for the emergence of new key initiatives and collaborations.

Historical Background

BICA Conference Series was preceded by the AAAI Fall Symposia on BICA, held in 2008-2009. Originally, participants were mostly the members of the DARPA BICA Program of 2005-2006; however, the audience started expanding rapidly. As a result, in 2010 the BICA Conference Series was initiated as a separate venue, managed by a newly formed nonprofit: BICA Society. For 13 years, the BICA conference was organized around the world (USA, Italy, Ukraine, France, Russia, Czech Republic, Brazil, Japan, Austria, Mexico), demonstrating impressive success in growing progression. The conference was complemented by schools and symposia on BICA, in total making 15 separate events. The BICA Society membership reached many hundreds. BICA Society published a number of books and journals, some of them on the regular basis. In 2020 when the COVID19 hit, the BICA conference still was a great success in the cyberspace and since then assumed a hybrid format: offline+online. During its years the conference was held in cooperation with well-known collocated events and incorporated into itself many international schools, workshops, and symposia. BICA community today is a well-recognized phenomenon of the scientific world.