Dr. Ruogu Fang was invited to present at The National Academies’ Workshop on Bidirectionality between AI and Neuroscience. The invitation comes from The National Academies Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, organizing a hybrid workshop titled “Exploring the Bidirectional Relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience.” The workshop occurred on March 25-26, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Fang was invited to speak in Session 3, “Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Medical/Clinical Environments.” This session focused on the needs and expectations of health professionals and individuals regarding the medical application of AI. It also addresses how neuroscience-related health professionals can contribute to developing innovative and effective AI systems for healthcare, with discussions on healthcare innovation and equity.
During Dr. Fang’s talk and panel discussion, she introduced the history of AI, which has been inspired by neuroscience and human intelligence. However, there exists a disparity between expectations regarding AI capabilities and its actual performance.
To close the gaps, Dr. Fang proposed three levels of research agenda:
1. Integrating higher-level cognition into AI models to empower brain disorders diagnosis and intervention
2. Build individuality into AI through a generalist model to make it more personalized while generalizable
3. Understand the sources and causes of bias and disparity and redefine fairness
At the end of her talk, she emphasized the importance of
- Long-term continuous funding of neuroscience-inspired AI and AI-empowered brain health to maintain national AI leadership
- Identifying strategies to provide large-scale computing resources for academic AI research
The 1.5-day public workshop, co-chaired by Dr. Magali Haas from Cohen Veterans Bioscience and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski from the Salk Institute for Biological Science, brought together a diverse group of experts from the neuroscience and AI fields. The aim was to discuss the application of AI in neuroscience research and explore how neuroscientific discoveries have contributed to the development of AI technologies. Additionally, the workshop will delve into strategies and collaborations necessary to enhance public and regulatory understanding of AI’s implications.