The Active Inference Institute proposes a system of open community working groups: one Field Working Group for field-level comparison and a shared assessment method, and domain working groups that pair active-inference experts with domain practitioners. The draft Charter and Operating Procedures are open for public review on GitHub now. The groups are proposed for founding at the Charter Development Session of the 6th Applied Active Inference Symposium, held online on 12-14 November 2026.
What the Working Groups Are
Working groups are bounded bodies charged with a named object of work, operating under a written charter with transparent governance, and producing public outputs the field can use or discard. They are constituted by their members. Responsibility for technical analysis, interpretation, and conclusions in working-group outputs belongs to the members.
The Institute's role is administrative, not epistemic: it convenes the groups, provides a non-voting Liaison, and is the exclusive official publisher of their outputs. Its publication review is limited to institutional policy, accuracy of institutional representations, and license terms. The Institute may not dissolve a working group, and a group continues if the Institute withdraws as convener.
The proposal is set out in the position paper Coordinating the Field: The Case for Ecosystem-Level Technology Roadmapping and Community Working Groups in Active Inference (Active Inference Institute Working Paper Series, Version 1.0.0, September 2026; DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23066904).
The Field Working Group
The Field Working Group addresses field-level comparability and a shared assessment method. Its proposed year-one products are:
- A terminology correspondence matrix for a defined set of core terms as used in at least SPM/DEM, pymdp, and RxInfer.jl.
- A public comparison protocol for a small set of standard problems, stratified into conceptual, algorithmic, and numerical correspondence, with version pins, a stated equivalence rule, and at least one worked example across two implementations.
- A shared domain-assessment framework, reviewed and agreed with constituted domain groups.
- External review of the matrix and the protocol by at least two reviewers who are not Institute Board members and were not drafters.
The Field group is constituted when at least five individuals commit in writing to that object, including at least one person who maintains or actively uses an implementation in the initial comparison set. Implementers and users of SPM, pymdp, RxInfer.jl, or another implementation are invited.
Domain Working Groups
Domain working groups each address a single field of application: whether Active Inference can be introduced to that domain in the domain's own terms, and where the domain currently stands under a shared rubric. Proposed year-one products are an audience and use-case note; one literacy or adaptation module designed jointly by active-inference experts and domain practitioners; participation in the Field group's framework series with an initial domain assessment; and a published go/no-go on the group's continuation.
A domain group is constituted when at least five individuals commit in writing to its year-one product, including at least one active-inference expert and at least one domain practitioner actively working in the domain. Scientific Advisory Board members may volunteer to supply the expert role. There is no cap on the number of domain groups.
The paper's suggestion list of candidate domains:
- Healthcare and clinical medicine
- Neuroscience
- Mental health and psychiatry
- Education and learning science
- Artificial intelligence and AGI
- Robotics, drones, and autonomous systems
- Finance and economic decision-making
- Climate and environmental science
- Cybersecurity
- Logistics
Defense and national security applications are deferred from the pilot year pending appropriate ethics review procedures.
The Active Inference and X pages on this site collect existing resources for many domains. They are not constituted working groups; domain groups form only when they meet the conditions above.
A Shared Assessment Framework
The paper proposes a seven-stage domain development framework as a provisional heuristic, so that every domain group assesses itself against the same rubric:
- Theoretical Awareness
- Domain Translation
- Community Nucleation
- Educational Infrastructure
- Credentialing and Practitioner Market
- Standards, Auditing, and Professional Events
- Institutional Maturity
The Symposium may adopt the framework provisionally as starting text. The Field Working Group, with constituted domain groups, then reviews, refines, and agrees the version the domains will use. Stage ratings remain each domain group's own analysis.
Founding Timeline
Now through November 2026. Public review of the draft Charter and Operating Procedures on GitHub.
Phase 1, at the Symposium (12-14 November 2026). Provisional adoption of the Charter and Operating Procedures for a 90-day ratification period; constitution of the Field Working Group and of every non-deferred domain that meets the formation floor and participation conditions; election of interim Chairs and Vice Chairs; a 90-day calendar for Phase 2; and provisional adoption of the seven-stage framework as starting text.
Phase 2, within 90 days. Ratification of the final Charter and Operating Procedures by a two-thirds supermajority of the combined active membership; confirmation of the framework starting text; Year One Work Plans; and officer elections under the ratified Charter.
After year one. A twelve-month pilot evaluation with a stop rule: a group that has not produced its named year-one products is paused. A five-year sunset review of the whole system follows, due no later than November 2031.
Founding Documents
The draft Charter (Appendix A of the position paper) and Operating Procedures (Appendix B) are maintained as living documents in the Working_Groups repository, alongside the predecessor governance documents they draw on: IEEE Technical Committees, the IETF working-group process (RFC 2418), the W3C Process Document, the IRS Form 1023 sample conflict-of-interest policy, and the ANSI Essential Requirements. Footnotes in each document give the predecessor source or design rationale for every provision.
The position paper is archived on Zenodo with the appendices as published; the repository versions carry any later changes.
How to Participate
- Attend the Charter Development Session. It is open to all registered Symposium participants, with remote participation and remote access to all substantive votes. Attending carries no obligation to join a working group.
- Review and comment on GitHub. Open an issue in the Working_Groups repository naming the document and section, your concern, and the change that would resolve it.
- Comment by email. Write to blanket@activeinference.institute with the subject line [WORKING GROUPS].
- Express interest in a group. Open an issue naming the Field Working Group or a domain, and the role you could fill: active-inference expert, domain practitioner, or implementation maintainer or user.
Membership is open to any individual with relevant expertise or substantive interest, including critics of Active Inference and domain practitioners who are not proponents of the framework. It requires no fee and no Institute membership. Active members are expected to attend four quarterly meetings of about ninety minutes and to contribute to at least one year-one product. All meetings are remote.