The nature of “intelligence” is a tricky thing to pin down, in no small part because it can be defined in so many ways. We’re perhaps most familiar with human intelligence and the artificial intelligence of robots. We’re learning more about the intelligence of other species, the collective intelligence of animal groups like ant colonies, market intelligence, evolutionary intelligence, and more.
Tyler Millhouse, who began his SFI postdoctoral fellowship earlier this year, draws on computer science, cognitive science, and philosophy to study a particular aspect of intelligence — how agents, from human scientists to AI systems, model their environments. More broadly, his research “seeks to understand how concepts from AI and machine learning can inform the philosophy of cognitive science and the philosophy of science more generally.”
At SFI, Millhouse will work closely with SFI Davis Professor of Complexity Melanie Mitchell and External Professor Melanie Moses to coordinate a series of workshops that will dig into the nuances of the nature, and types, of intelligence. The project, Foundations of Intelligence in Natural and Artificial Systems, is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Millhouse holds an MA in philosophy from Tufts University and a PhD, also in philosophy, from the University of Arizona.