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Main Authors: Durstewitz, Daniel, Averbeck, Bruno, Koppe, Georgia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02103
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author Durstewitz, Daniel
Averbeck, Bruno
Koppe, Georgia
author_facet Durstewitz, Daniel
Averbeck, Bruno
Koppe, Georgia
contents Modern AI models, such as large language models, are usually trained once on a huge corpus of data, potentially fine-tuned for a specific task, and then deployed with fixed parameters. Their training is costly, slow, and gradual, requiring billions of repetitions. In stark contrast, animals continuously adapt to the ever-changing contingencies in their environments. This is particularly important for social species, where behavioral policies and reward outcomes may frequently change in interaction with peers. The underlying computational processes are often marked by rapid shifts in an animal's behaviour and rather sudden transitions in neuronal population activity. Such computational capacities are of growing importance for AI systems operating in the real world, like those guiding robots or autonomous vehicles, or for agentic AI interacting with humans online. Can AI learn from neuroscience? This Perspective explores this question, integrating the literature on continual and in-context learning in AI with the neuroscience of learning on behavioral tasks with shifting rules, reward probabilities, or outcomes. We will outline an agenda for how specifically insights from neuroscience may inform current developments in AI in this area, and - vice versa - what neuroscience may learn from AI, contributing to the evolving field of NeuroAI.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_02103
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle What Neuroscience Can Teach AI About Learning in Continuously Changing Environments
Durstewitz, Daniel
Averbeck, Bruno
Koppe, Georgia
Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
I.2; I.6; A.1
Modern AI models, such as large language models, are usually trained once on a huge corpus of data, potentially fine-tuned for a specific task, and then deployed with fixed parameters. Their training is costly, slow, and gradual, requiring billions of repetitions. In stark contrast, animals continuously adapt to the ever-changing contingencies in their environments. This is particularly important for social species, where behavioral policies and reward outcomes may frequently change in interaction with peers. The underlying computational processes are often marked by rapid shifts in an animal's behaviour and rather sudden transitions in neuronal population activity. Such computational capacities are of growing importance for AI systems operating in the real world, like those guiding robots or autonomous vehicles, or for agentic AI interacting with humans online. Can AI learn from neuroscience? This Perspective explores this question, integrating the literature on continual and in-context learning in AI with the neuroscience of learning on behavioral tasks with shifting rules, reward probabilities, or outcomes. We will outline an agenda for how specifically insights from neuroscience may inform current developments in AI in this area, and - vice versa - what neuroscience may learn from AI, contributing to the evolving field of NeuroAI.
title What Neuroscience Can Teach AI About Learning in Continuously Changing Environments
topic Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
I.2; I.6; A.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02103