What Type of Inference is Active Inference?

The article presents a detailed examination of Active Inference, demonstrating that Expected Free Energy (EFE) minimization can be reformulated as Variational Free Energy (VFE) minimization on a generative model with epistemic priors. It establishes a connection between EFE-based planning and policy optimization through a combination of entropy-correction terms, providing a full variational characterization. Experimental results from grid-world environments indicate that the comprehensive EFE-based planning approach outperforms simplified models lacking either planning or epistemic corrections, offering insights for practitioners in optimizing decision-making frameworks in AI.