{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,26]],"date-time":"2025-12-26T07:14:54Z","timestamp":1766733294657,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":98,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758499200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000272","name":"NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ACF-2023-13-013","205103\/Z\/16\/Z"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ACF-2023-13-013","205103\/Z\/16\/Z"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000272","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100004440","name":"Wellcome trust","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ACF-2023-13-013","205103\/Z\/16\/Z"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ACF-2023-13-013","205103\/Z\/16\/Z"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100004440","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This technical note applies active inference to the problem of learning goal-directed behaviour from scratch, namely, de novo learning. By de novo learning, we mean discovering, directly from observations, the structure and parameters of a discrete generative model for sequential policy optimisation. Concretely, our procedure grows and then reduces a model until it discovers a pullback attractor over (generalised) states; this attracting set supplies paths of least action among goal states while avoiding costly states. The implicit efficiency rests upon reframing the learning problem through the lens of the free energy principle, under which it is sufficient to learn a generative model whose dynamics feature such an attracting set. For context, we briefly relate this perspective to value-based formulations (e.g., Bellman optimality) and then apply the active inference formulation to a small arcade game to illustrate de novo structure learning and ensuing agency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e27090992","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T17:08:17Z","timestamp":1758560897000},"page":"992","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Gradient-Free De Novo Learning"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7984-8909","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karl","family":"Friston","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK"},{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5108-5743","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Parr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Conor","family":"Heins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0126-4588","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lancelot","family":"Da Costa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"},{"name":"ELLIS Institute T\u00fcbingen, 72076 T\u00fcbingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tommaso","family":"Salvatori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alexander","family":"Tschantz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Magnus","family":"Koudahl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7583-3291","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Toon","family":"Van de Maele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christopher","family":"Buckley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"},{"name":"Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2731-7262","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tim","family":"Verbelen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parr, T., Pezzulo, G., and Friston, K.J. 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