'Passive' visual stimuli is needed to build sophisticated AI

'Passive' visual experiences play a key part in our early learning experiences and should be replicated in AI vision systems, according to neuroscientists. Italian researchers argue there are two types of learning – passive and active – and both are crucial in the development of our vision and understanding of the world. Who we become as adults depends on the first years of life from these two types of stimulus – 'passive' observations of the world around us and'active' learning of what we are taught explicitly. In experiments, the scientists demonstrated the importance of the passive experience for the proper functioning of key nerve cells involved in our ability to see. This could lead to direct improvements in new visual rehabilitation therapies or machine learning algorithms employed by artificial vision systems, they claim.