David Abel (Google DeepMind, University of Edinburgh) - Plasticity as the Mirror of Empowerment

Invited talk by David Abel (Google DeepMind, University of Edinburgh) at Imperial College London hosted by the SPIKE research group on October 17, 2025.

Title: Plasticity as the Mirror of Empowerment

Abstract: Agents are minimally entities that are influenced by their past observations and act to influence future observations. This latter capacity is captured by empowerment, which has served as a vital framing concept across artificial intelligence and cognitive science. This former capacity, however, is equally foundational: In what ways, and to what extent, can an agent be influenced by what it observes? In this talk, I propose a simple definition of agent plasticity, and reveal two fundamental connections to empowerment. Our first finding is that plasticity is the mirror of empowerment: The agent’s plasticity is identical to the empowerment of the environment, and vice versa. Our second finding establishes a tension between the plasticity and empowerment of an agent, suggesting that agent design needs to be mindful of both characteristics. I close by discussing the role of these concepts and their relationship in our broader understanding of agency.

Bio: David Abel is a Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His work focuses broadly on the foundations of AI, with a recent focus on agency.

Author's Webpage: https://david-abel.github.io

Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.10361