Perpetual self-aware cognitive agents

32 AI MAGAZINE ■ To construct a perpetual self-aware cognitive agent that can continuously operate with independence, an introspective machine must be produced. To assemble such an agent, it is necessary to perform a full integration of cognition (planning, understanding, and learning) and metacognition (control and monitoring of cognition) with intelligent behaviors. The failure to do this completely is why similar, more limited efforts have not succeeded in the past. I outline some key computational requirements of metacognition by describing a multistrategy learning system called Meta-AQUA and then discuss an integration of Meta-AQUA with a nonlinear state-space planning agent. I show how the resultant system, INTRO, can independently generate its own goals, and I relate this work to the general issue of self-awareness by machine.