AGI Needs Hunger: Metabolic Grounding as a Constraint on Artificial Agency

Sahil Gupta

Track: Track 2: Socio-Economical and Future Visions

Keywords: Metabolic grounding, artificial hunger, artificial general intelligence, biological computationalism, intrinsic motivation, machine consciousness, embodied cognition, viability constraints, AI governance

TL;DR: AGI may require “artificial hunger”: intrinsic metabolic-like viability constraints that ground cognition, motivation, and potentially consciousness beyond externally imposed reward optimization.

Abstract: Current AI systems exhibit impressive pattern recognition, reasoning, and planning, yet remain fundamentally *unmotivated*: they optimize externally specified objectives without intrinsic pressure to persist, adapt, or care. We argue that this limitation reflects a missing constraint shared by all biological intelligence: *metabolic scarcity*. In living systems, cognition is inseparable from energy regulation. Biological agents must continuously act to maintain viability. Building on biological computationalism, which views cognition as embodied computation realized through physical self-maintenance, we advance the position that artificial general intelligence will require an analogous internal energetic imperative ("artificial hunger'') to generate real agency, self-directed learning, and consciousness. We propose a framework for *metabolically grounded computation*, outline architectural guidelines, and derive falsifiable predictions for future AI systems.

Anonymization: This submission has been anonymized for double-blind review via the removal of identifying information such as names, affiliations, and identifying URLs.

Submission Number: 12