Artificial intelligence (AI) has made remarkable advances in areas such as image processing, speech recognition and medical diagnoses. Nevertheless, AI is still far from approaching human-level intelligence, and autonomous functionality is absolutely critical to advance AI towards this goal. 

With this CERC Chair, Dr. Irina Rish proposes to connect AI research with vast amounts of knowledge about the mind and brain from biology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and other disciplines. The objective is to augment AI by developing and using better computational models of brain functioning, including plasticity, attention, memory, reward processing, motivation, emotions and other functions so that Autonomous AI may be achieved. 

This CERC will build a community of researchers who can bridge the gap between these disciplines, paving the way towards a new, unified science of both biological and artificial intelligence. It will also enable Canada to maintain its reputation as a world- class hub for AI research and innovation.