Shigeru Taguchi

Hokkaido University, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Canada)

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About

Shigeru Taguchi is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science whose work critically interrogates foundational questions in artificial intelligence and robotics. His research centers on the problem of meaning, the nature of affordances, and the philosophical underpinnings of embodied cognition. Taguchi’s most influential contribution, “The Problem of Meaning in AI and Robotics: Still with Us after All These Years” (2019, 43 citations), offers a skeptical assessment of deep neural networks and cognitive robotics, arguing that these approaches fail to fundamentally address the challenge of genuine semantic understanding. This paper has become a touchstone for researchers questioning whether contemporary AI can truly grasp meaning. In his more recent work, “Reality of Affordances: A Category-Theoretic Approach” (2024, 2 citations), Taguchi introduces a novel mathematical framework for understanding Gibsonian affordances, proposing that they are neither purely objective nor subjective but can be modeled through category theory. This innovative approach bridges philosophy, psychology, and robotics, offering new tools for conceptualizing how organisms perceive opportunities for action. Taguchi’s work stands out for its rigorous conceptual analysis and its willingness to challenge dominant paradigms in AI research, making him a vital voice for students and scholars interested in the deep philosophical questions that underlie intelligent systems.