Research · Research · 2025
Towards Conscious Artificial Intelligence
A strange question, a quantum sampling idea, and a joint first-place research prize.
Some research directions begin with a tidy benchmark. This one began with a messier question: could quantum sampling help us build richer probabilistic representations of language and context?
The proposal
The FinQ-affiliated team developed “Towards Conscious Artificial Intelligence: Probabilistic Word Embedding with Quantum Sampling.” It explored a bridge between quantum computation, artificial intelligence and theories of cognition without pretending that any one of those fields had already solved the others.
That willingness to ask a technically grounded but unusually large question is exactly the kind of research culture FinQ wants to protect.
The recognition
The proposal received joint first place in the 2025 Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize. The recognition mattered, but so did what it made visible: FinQ could be more than a venue for talks and meetups. It could also be a home for collaborators developing an original research direction together.
The work now sits at an important edge of FinQ’s story—between practical quantum applications and our longer-term curiosity about intelligence, agency and quantum systems.