SHIGAKI, Shunsuke
Assistant Professor, Principles of Informatics Research Division
National Institute of Informatics[MAIN BODY]■ Aiming to artificially recreate natural intelligence
As computers become more sophisticated, artificial intelligence is developing at anastounding pace. In particular, there has been incredible growth in generative AI, which
produces new data and information based on data that the computer has learned, andgenerative AI is increasingly being used as a handy tool in everyday life. Compared to living
things, including humans, computers can calculate faster and recognize images and sounds
more accurately, so it may seem like they can handle anything; but in fact, there are many
problems that computers cannot handle. For example, if a part of a computer fails due to a
power outage or deterioration, it cannot repair itself. One reason is that human-made objects
do not have the natural healing ability of living organisms; but another major reason is that
artificial intelligence does not have a “body”. Having a “body” would allow artificial
intelligence to experience the world in an active way, perhaps even becoming able to respondto major errors or damage, such as faults. Looking at the natural world, we find that insects,
which have much smaller nervous systems than mammals, are still able to walk after losing aleg, so they can survive and thrive. I think the strength of living organisms lies in thisflexibility and robustness. In my research, I am exploring how to artificially recreate thenatural intelligence of living organisms.

■ Learning from insects in robot design
As the first step towards artificially recreating natural intelligence, I am researching insects.
My particular focus is on moths and their excellent sense of smell. The challenge is to see
whether we can artificially recreate their intelligence.
Many living organisms, not just moths, use scent for communication and space perception.
This could partly be because their sense of sight is not as good as humans, but because odor is
not carried by waves, it is highly dispersible and durable, which means information remains
within a given space. The source of an odor can be identified by tracing it through that space,but in reality, the diffusion of an odor is extremely complicated, as it is affected by both windand obstacles. Therefore, existing robots and artificial intelligence are unable to handle all thepossible situations. This is one of the issues that is difficult to overcome with artificialsystems, and is also why there has not been much progress in research into equipping robots
with a sense of smell. However, as I mentioned earlier, moths deal with this issue in real timeby skillfully sensing the environment using their bodies, consolidating information frommultiple sensory organs, and deciding and adapting their behavior to the situation. If we can1/2

extract this intelligence from living organisms and reproduce it artificially, I believe it will
help to make robots more useful in a wider range of applications.

■ Could robots ever surpass living things?
I don’t know how long it will take, but I want to develop robots that are equal to or better thanliving organisms, and I believe this should be possible. The important thing is to look beneaththe surface. I believe there are always reasons for what “nature” does, and it is worth
exploring these reasons. For example, silk moths have wings, but they cannot fly. At firstglance, this might seem pointless or an inefficient use of energy. Yet, by visualizing theairflow around a silk moth, we find that by flapping its wings, the moth attracts odors, which
contributes to its efficient odor tracking ability. Thus, what we can see with our eyes is only
part of the story; many of the reasons are hidden, and the discovery of these reasons isimportant. In my research, I conduct experiments with actual living organisms from theperspectives of morphology, behavior, and physiology, searching for where the essence of
their natural intelligence is hidden. Deciphering this essence will enable us to reconstruct it
artificially, which could make it possible to construct robots with the flexibility androbustness of living organisms. When artificially reproducing natural intelligence, we do notnecessarily need to copy the physical structure or number of sensory organs of the livingorganism. All we have to do is to artificially reconstruct adaptability and robustness
equivalent to or better than that of living organisms. We are pursuing this research,envisioning that it will be possible to create robots that can function even better than livingorganisms.

Researchmap https://researchmap.jp/sshigaki?lang=en

Written by SHIGAKI Shunsuke, translated by FORTE Science Communications.
Updated January 2024

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