Perceptual Experience and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Vision Research

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have had a big impact on all scientific disciplines in the past decade, and vision science is no exception. Deep neural networks surpass human performance on some image classification tasks, and generative AI can produce images and videos that, at first glance, are indistinguishable from nature. The focus of this Special Issue is on the impact of AI on vision research and the potential for fruitful research across the divide between biological and computer vision. AI has made huge progress since the first biologically inspired neural network models. In their current format, these models raise many important questions for understanding biological vision and for the future development of computer vision. This Special Issue welcomes submissions of papers that explore these developments, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Similarities and differences between human vision and current neural network models;
• The role of vision science in developing explainable and trustworthy AI;
• Understanding and using stimuli created by generative AI;
• Representations and world models in human and computer vision;
• The role of perceptual experience and qualia in human vision and their implications for understanding AI systems.

This Special Issue is inspired by a discussion on the theme of perceptual experience and the impact of AI on vision research at the Scottish Vision Group 2024 annual meeting. Papers on this and other subjects covered at the meeting are encouraged. Submissions on this theme from external contributors are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Paul B. Hibbard
Dr. Jordi M. Asher
Dr. Ross Goutcher
Dr. Aysha Motala
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vision is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• perceptual experience
• generative AI
• natural image statistics
• artificial general intelligence
• perceptual representation and world models