Whence the Expected Free Energy?

Abstract The expected free energy (EFE) is a central quantity in the theory of active inference. It that all inference agents are mandated to minimize through action, and its decomposition into extrinsic intrinsic value terms key balance exploration exploitation evince. Despite importance, mathematical origins this relation variational (VFE) remain unclear. In letter, we investigate EFE detail show it not simply ”the future.” We present functional argue natural extension VFE but actively discourages exploratory behavior, thus demonstrating does directly follow from minimization future. then develop novel objective, future (FEEF), which possesses both epistemic component an intuitive grounding as divergence between predicted desired futures.