Title: What deep learning can tell us about higher cognitive functions like mindreading?,
Abstract: Can deep learning (DL) guide our understanding of computations happening in
biological brain? We will first briefly consider how DL has contributed to the
research on visual object recognition. In the main part we will assess whether
DL could also help us to clarify the computations underlying higher cognitive
functions such as Theory of Mind. In addition, we will compare the objectives
and learning signals of brains and machines, leading us to conclude that simply
scaling up the current DL algorithms will not lead to human level mindreading
skills. We then provide some insights about how to fairly compare human and DL
performance. In the end we find that DL can contribute to our understanding of
biological computations by providing an example of an end-to-end algorithm that
solves the same problems the biological agents face.