Title: Will AI ever be able to realize what is relevant?

The way organismic agents come to know the world, and the way algorithms solve problems, are fundamentally different. The most sensible course of action for an organism does not simply follow from logical rules of inference. Before it can even use such rules, the organism must tackle the problem of relevance. It must turn ill-defined problems into well-defined ones, turn semantics into syntax. This ability to realize relevance is present in all organisms, from bacteria to humans. It lies at the root of organismic agency, cognition, and consciousness, arising from the particular autopoietic, anticipatory, and adaptive organization of living beings. In this talk, we show that the process of relevance realization is beyond formalization. It cannot be captured completely by algorithmic approaches. This implies that organismic agency (and hence cognition as well as consciousness) are at heart not computational in nature. Instead, we show how the process of relevance is realized by an adaptive and emergent triadic dialectic (a trialectic), which manifests as a metabolic and ecological-evolutionary co-constructive dynamic. This results in a meliorative process that enables an agent to continuously keep a grip on its arena, its reality. To be alive means to make sense of one’s world. This kind of embodied ecological rationality is a fundamental aspect of life, and a key characteristic that sets it apart from non-living matter like AI systems.

Short bio: 

Dr. Johannes Jäger is a scientist publishing on the fundamental difference between living and artificial systems, especially when it comes to agency, intelligence, and creativity. His research has been published in premium outlets, such as Nature, PLoS and Journal of Psychology. His recent paper on AI’s ability for relevance realization has gained international attention. Trained as a systems biologist, he led an empirical life science research group in Barcelona until 2015 and then became director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Kloster Neuburg. Currently, Johannes Jäger is Associate Faculty at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna and works as a freelance researcher, author and educator.

Event Details
When: Friday, December 19, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 (CET)
Where: Online (link provided upon registration) or at D2.2.094