Exploring new ways to understand emotional and relational experience.
OwnMyMind explores how artificial intelligence could contribute to understanding what we feel and experience in our relationships.
We are developing an autonomous conversational agent, informed by a perspective that places psychological experience within interpersonal relationships.
Emotional experience at the heart of the research
What we feel, how we understand ourselves and what we experience with other people are the starting points for OwnMyMind.
The project seeks to translate knowledge about emotional and relational experience into a model of interaction with artificial intelligence. The aim is to develop and evaluate an approach that explores this experience, recognises each person’s individuality and considers the context in which their feelings and experiences acquire meaning.
The approach draws on contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly relational psychoanalysis and intersubjective models. From this perspective, understanding a person’s experience means considering the relationships through which that experience takes shape, the person’s history and the meanings constructed within those relationships.
An experience that is mine, but does not take shape in isolation
The name OwnMyMind expresses the intention to understand my emotional and relational experience.
“My” recognises the individuality of that experience. “Own” does not mean mastering the mind or controlling everything we feel: it points to the possibility of recognising and understanding feelings, meanings and ways of relating as our own.
We start from a perspective in which the mind does not exist separately from interpersonal relationships. Understanding our experience is therefore not only about looking inward. It also means seeking to understand the relationships in which that experience takes shape and changes.
What we are researching
Language, memory and context
The research will explore language models and mechanisms for memory and context management, including non-verbal information. These strands of work will investigate how to support continuity across interactions while taking each person’s experience into account over time.
Quality of interaction and capacity for reflection
We aim to develop and evaluate an experimental model, considering the quality of interactions and the model’s potential contribution to reflection on emotional and relational experience.
Data protection and limits of use
Data protection and the definition of limits of use form part of the development and evaluation of the model.
Through the project’s articles and updates, we will share research questions, stages of development and results as they become available for publication.
Follow the project, explore the ideas
News from OwnMyMind, development notes and articles exploring the emotional, relational and technological questions that guide the research.
Articles will appear here.
A collaborative project
OwnMyMind is led by BTK, Lda., with the Laboratório de Informática e Sistemas do Instituto Pedro Nunes as co-promoter.
- Project lead
- BTK, Lda.
- Co-promoter
- Laboratório de Informática e Sistemas do Instituto Pedro Nunes
Supporting the development of OwnMyMind
OwnMyMind is supported by Centro 2030, under Portugal 2030, and co-funded by the European Union.
This support is intended for the project’s research and development.
- Total investment
- €686,738.40
- European Union financial support
- €542,634.23
- Financial support for BTK, Lda.
- €226,001.07
- Financial support for Instituto Pedro Nunes
- €316,633.16
Get in touch about the project
Do you have a question about OwnMyMind, a suggested topic for our articles or a proposal for collaboration?
Contact the team.
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