Prominent accounts of sentient behavior depict brains as generative models of organismic interaction with the world, evincing intriguing similarities with current advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI). However, because they contend with the control of purposive, life-sustaining sensorimotor interactions, the generative models of living organisms are inextricably anchored to the body and world. Unlike the passive models learned by generative AI systems, they must capture and control the sensory consequences of action. This allows embodied agents to intervene upon their worlds in ways that constantly put their best models to the test, thus providing a solid bedrock that is – we argue – essential to the development of genuine understanding. We review the resulting implications and consider future directions for generative AI.

对感知行为的著名描述将大脑描述为有机体与世界相互作用的生成模型，这与当前生成人工智能（AI）的进展表现出有趣的相似之处。然而，由于它们与有目的的、维持生命的感觉运动相互作用的控制作斗争，生物体的生成模型与身体和世界密不可分。与生成式人工智能系统学习的被动模型不同，它们必须捕获并控制行动的感官后果。这使得实体主体能够以不断测试其最佳模型的方式干预他们的世界，从而提供坚实的基石，我们认为，这对于真正理解的发展至关重要。我们回顾了由此产生的影响，并考虑了生成人工智能的未来方向。