When asked to write a blog for MAK on artificial intelligence, I contemplated what to actually write on. I considered writing about the many misconceptions one can find in the media regarding AI. For instance, misconceptions regarding its inception.
No, AI is not a recent invention that happened with the launch of ChatGPT. Instead, AI as a discipline has a history of over seven decades. The term was coined in 1956 but artificial neural networks – nowadays more commonly known as deep learning – have an even longer history.
No, it is not at all clear what we mean by artificial intelligence, for the very definition of ‘intelligence’ is not clear. Psychologists have not reached consensus on such a definition for human intelligence. And when it comes to AI one could even ask the question whether artificial intelligence only includes human intelligence or also animal intelligence.
No, AI has not reached artificial general intelligence (AGI), because each time it approaches (general) intelligence the way we define it, we move the finish line (When AI beats chess masters, we move the finish line to the game of Go. When AI beats Go champions, we move the finish line of intelligence to self-driving cars, to creativity, to consciousness…).
So many books and articles have already been written on these misconceptions (and others are soon coming out), that one might ask why would one want to see all that information repeated in a blog? A blog for MAK Mentorship System on behalf of Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM) of Tilburg University nonetheless!
Perhaps a blog for MAK should instead focus on what seems to be another misconception regarding AI, a rather local misconception. One that applies to our own university. Too often Tilburg University is portrayed as “a public research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities.” At least according to Wikipedia. The university website echoes this description: “Today’s pressing societal issues can only be resolved through in-depth knowledge of the social sciences, economics, law and governance, the humanities, and theology.” And our educational and research expertise in social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities is absolutely something to be proud of.
But exclusively to be proud of the social sciences, economics, law and governance, the humanities, and theology does not justice to the developments that have taken place over the last decade. Perhaps it even reveals a misconception regarding AI. AI at Tilburg University.
Too often we point at other universities when it comes to expertise in AI. We thereby tend to forget that we have a thriving Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence with researchers whose main expertise is in the very area of AI. We also tend to forget that Tilburg University is involved in JADS, the Jeronimus Academy of Data Science in Den Bosch, a collaboration between Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology in the field of data science and artificial intelligence. We tend to forget that Tilburg University is heavily involved in MindLabs, a collaboration between Tilburg University and universities of applied science, vocational education, and corporate partners in the field of AI. In fact, we tend to forget that when considering the Bachelor and Master programs in AI Tilburg University offers, one could argue that we have one of the larger AI programs in the country.
We also tend to forget the DAF Technology Lab, a cutting edge research facility that includes two CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environments) systems, that not only provides a virtual experience projected onto the four CAVE walls to provide an immersive 360 degree video experience. An experience that is augmented with 44 speakers to also have an immersive audio experience. With a tracking system, these CAVEs allow for adjusting the VR environment to the user. An ideal environment for innovative education and interdisciplinary research.
Finally, we tend to forget the AI related research, Tilburg University is active in. Let me mention the ones that come to (my) mind first, because I am leading those projects. We are developing super-surgeons with augmented reality simulations that allow surgeons to look through the patient during surgery by projecting 3D medical images onto the patient. We conduct the scientific research behind SpaceBuzz, the non-profit organization that is led by European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers, that launches some 70,000 children into space – in virtual reality. We build embodied conversational agents, virtual humans who realistically look like actual humans but are driven by AI algorithms. We build brain-computer devices for pilots that help them in training, by monitoring their neurophysiological behavior in order to send that information to the VR environment and provide personalized learning. In this tiny mini-overview of current research projects I am not at all doing justice to the many AI projects that so many of my AI colleagues are currently conducting. Those projects are even more fascinating and but would cover numerous episodes of MAK blogs.
Are these examples of AI at Tilburg University a misconception regarding AI at Tilburg University? Are they simply a case of “missing the memo”? Or are we (unconsciously) being too modest in profiling ourselves as an AI university like the technical universities do? An answer to that question I leave to others.
Prof. dr. Max Louwerse
Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University, and Professor by Special Appointment at Maastricht University (BISS). Louwerse is founder and scientific director of the DAF Technology Lab, co-founder of JADS and MindLabs, and is author of the upcoming popular science book “Understanding Artificial Minds through Human Minds: The Psychology of AI (Taylor & Francis / Routledge, 2025).