A tale of two densities: active inference is enactive inference.
Adaptive behavior August 1, 2020 Maxwell Jd Ramstead, Michael D Kirchhoff, Karl J Friston 387 citations
The free-energy principle (FEP) and active inference are often conflated with predictive processing frameworks, leading to misunderstandings about their core constructs, generative models and variational densities. This article argues that these models have been systematically misrepresented as structural representations. Instead, under the FEP, generative and recognition models function to realize inference and control—the self-organizing, belief-guided selection of action policies—not as representations with the properties structural representationalists ascribe. The authors propose an enactive interpretation, termed enactive inference, as a more accurate account of these constructs.