# Relevance or Irrelevance of Research on AI and the Brain's Prefrontal Cortex

**URL:** <https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/relevance-or-irrelevance-of-research-on-ai-and-the-brains-prefrontal-cortex/1196>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [September 12, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/relevance-or-irrelevance-of-research-on-ai-and-the-brains-prefrontal-cortex/1196 "2026-09-12T19:10:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![markellingsen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.thousandbrains.org/markellingsen/32/907_2.png) [@markellingsen](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/u/markellingsen)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/relevance-or-irrelevance-of-research-on-ai-and-the-brains-prefrontal-cortex/1196/1 "2026-09-12T19:10:56Z")

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Has staff of the project been in dialogue with research on the desirability of developing AI’s replicate certain functions of the brain’s prefrontal cortex esp.  
-Taylor Webb, S.S. Mondal, et al, “A brain-inspired agentic architecture to improve planning with LLMs,” Nature Communications 16 (30 September 2023) -Richard Tarecha, Priscilla Choirmin, et al, “Toward Safe Artificial General Intelligence : Collective Narrow AI Collaboration with Aritifical Prefrontal Cortex,” ICoBIS Open Journal (January 19,2026) -Ian WIlliams, “ALignment as Neural Integration: AI as a Cognitive Layer,” LessWrong (February 25, 2025)

If not, why are these concerns with AI and the prefrontal cortex not relevant to your focus on AI and the neocortex? Thanks for helping me better understand the aims and limits of the TBP.

Mark Ellingsen

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**Author:** ![brothman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.thousandbrains.org/brothman/32/1398_2.png) [@brothman](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/u/brothman)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/relevance-or-irrelevance-of-research-on-ai-and-the-brains-prefrontal-cortex/1196/2 "2026-09-16T18:48:20Z")

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Hi Mark,

Thank you for your question!

We’ve discussed some closely related questions in your earlier thread about the prefrontal cortex and TBP’s research focus ([forum.thousandbrains.org/t/is-the-thousand-brains-project-creating-mechanisms-akin-to-the-prefrontal-cortex/294](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/is-the-thousand-brains-project-creating-mechanisms-akin-to-the-prefrontal-cortex/294)).

We’re a small team, and our time is limited. Going forward, the most useful way to engage with the project is through a more specific, actionable approach. If there is a particular finding or mechanism from this research that you think should change or improve Monty, we’d encourage you to share with us how you think Monty should change based on it.

With warmth,

Benji

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**Author:** ![markellingsen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.thousandbrains.org/markellingsen/32/907_2.png) [@markellingsen](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/u/markellingsen)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/relevance-or-irrelevance-of-research-on-ai-and-the-brains-prefrontal-cortex/1196/3 "2026-09-28T19:26:04Z")

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I was just trying to help your team in case you had not known about or considered this research. My take-away form you response is that this is not relevant tog your tasks. Of course the amature in me might be enlightened as to why, but if you have not time to respond, so be it.