HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Computational Intelligence in Robotics
This article is part of the Research TopicAI for Design and Control of Advanced RobotsView all articles
Hypothesis on the Functional Advantages of the Selection-Broadcast Cycle Structure: Global Workspace Theory and Dealing with a Real-Time World
Provisionally accepted
- 1Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, Osaka, Japan
- 2AI Lab, CyberAgent Inc., Tokyo, Japan
- 3Faculty of Law, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyōto, Japan
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This paper discusses the functional advantages of the Selection-Broadcast Cycle structure proposed by Global Workspace Theory (GWT), inspired by human consciousness, particularly focusing on its applicability to artificial intelligence and robotics in dynamic, real-time scenarios. While previous studies often examined the Selection and Broadcast processes independently, this research emphasizes their combined cyclic structure and the resulting benefits for real-time cognitive systems. Specifically, the paper identifies three primary benefits: Dynamic Thinking Adaptation, Experience-Based Adaptation, and Immediate Real-Time Adaptation. This work highlights GWT's potential as a cognitive architecture suitable for sophisticated decision-making and adaptive performance in unsupervised, dynamic environments. It suggests new directions for the development and implementation of robust, general-purpose AI and robotics systems capable of managing complex, real-world tasks.
Keywords: global workspace theory, selection, Broadcast, Serial Processing, parallel processing, Real-time world
Received: 07 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nakanishi, Baba, Yoshikawa, Kamide and Ishiguro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Junya Nakanishi, nakanishi.junya@irl.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp
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