关于我们研究所

我们做什么

积极推断研究所识别、建立、提供支持并实现可持续的：教育和研究服务；研究所及其积极推断生态系统内的参与、沟通、咨询和治理功能；开放源代码、公平使用和有效传播社区产品的出版和许可协议；以及生态系统支持服务，包括沟通、教育项目和协作项目。我们举办研究所计划和项目，为生态系统项目提供可见性，并管理积极推断领域的信息公共空间。

历史

The Institute traces its origins to a 2020 co-founder team meeting around a shared interest in Active Inference. An "Active Inference Lab" (ActInfLab) formed from those discussions and began operations in 2021 as a volunteer-led community dedicated to making Active Inference more accessible, rigorous, and applicable. In mid-2022, ActInfLab made the developmental leap to become The Active Inference Institute, registering as a nonprofit in Delaware, USA, and formalizing governance with a Board of Directors, Officers, and Scientific Advisory Board. In 2024, the Institute received official recognition as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, achieved with the pro bono support of the Fried Frank law firm. See the History page for the full year-by-year record, including the Textbook Group, the Applied Active Inference Symposium series, and the Institute and Ecosystem living document.

使命、愿景、价值观和原则

Our mission is to improve the accessibility, rigor, and applicability of Active Inference across science, engineering, education, and practical domains. The Institute operates by the motto Act. Infer. Serve. — a commitment to learning, action, and service. Our vision is a future in which Active Inference is used as widely as Machine Learning, given its demonstrated utility and impact across the Domains of Application it serves. Our values and principles include Active Inference and Exploration, Integrity, Institute- and Ecosystem-Scale Generative Modeling, Anticipatory Behavior, Continuous Development, and Participatory Engagement. We practice open science: making research reproducible and navigable, publishing under open licenses, and stewarding shared infrastructure. Diversity of background, discipline, and familiarity level is a feature of the community, not a constraint.

研究所结构

该机构由董事会管理，日常运营由执行官领导，科学咨询职能由科学咨询委员会承担。两个组织单位负责实施研究所的项目：EduActive 单元负责教育，ReInference 单元负责研究，每个单元由协调员领导。项目、志愿者、学习者和实习生在该结构内运作，并向更广泛的积极推断生态系统外联。

研究所项目

研究所项目是参与的结构化路径：志愿者、实习、导师指导、研究奖学金、合作伙伴关系、慈善和资助。这些项目将兴趣转化为贡献，并将个人参与与研究所的研究、教育和生态系统目标联系起来。

开放科学与生态系统

The Institute publishes its work under open licenses and maintains public repositories, a video archive, the Newsletter, an Active Inference Ontology, and the Active Inference Journal. We participate in and support the broader Active Inference Ecosystem — a growing network of researchers, practitioners, and learners working across disciplines including computational neuroscience, cognitive science, ecology, economics, and engineering.

Directions for the Institute

Directions for the Institute describe ongoing areas of activity and development at the Institute scale.

The following table lists current developmental and connections with

Directions & Steps

Below, we revisit the Focus Areas for the Institute and outline some Directions for the Institute.

1. Research Advancement and Cross-disciplinary Expansion
   1. Seek Grants for cross-disciplinary research
   2. Support core Active Inference research (ReInference (Research)) and educational (EduActive (Education)) development
   3. Explore implications in philosophy, social sciences, and other Domains of Application
   4. Facilitate collaboration with other cognitive models and research communities
   5. Develop new policy appraisal methodologies with focus on ethical and cognitive security considerations
2. Educational Outreach and Resource Development
   1. Develop a full academic curriculum for interdisciplinary audiences
   2. Create educational resources (Fundamentals of Active Inference and Beyond)
   3. Provide courses on Implementations of Active Inference for industry professionals
   4. Increase learning resources for coding Active Inference agents/simulations
   5. Develop foundations for trust, ethics, and education in the context of rapid AI advancement
3. Software Development and Practical Applications
   1. With Open Source development, Improve RxInfer.jl and PyMDP visualization capabilities and overall usability
   2. Develop real-world Implementations of Active Inference across Domains of Application
   3. Support multi-agent workflows (e.g. using Active Entity Ontology for Science (AEOS))
   4. Create reliable and accurate models for engineers
4. Community Growth and Engagement
   1. Facilitate Mentorship connections with Internship, Fellows, and Scientific Advisory Board members
   2. Foster edge interactions within the community and The Active Inference Ecosystem
   3. Implement automated feedback mechanisms
   4. Moderate community discourse to ensure compliance with culture and values
   5. Improve onboarding experience for new users
   6. Increase awareness and involvement from organizations outside the Institute
5. Public Engagement and Knowledge Dissemination
   1. Translate Active Inference concepts for broader public understanding
   2. Develop Communications strategies to disseminate knowledge to general public, and professional across areas
   3. Explore the intersection of Active Inference with current global issues (social, economic, geopolitical, technological, environmental)
   4. Continue to develop Open Source publishing and licensing support systems for contributors

the shared space

Essentially all Institute Projects use the shared space as a document system.

Clicking through links and documentation of Institute Projects you will find many examples of links within and across documents — this Institute & Ecosystem was written collaboratively in the shared space, and then exported for snapshot (whereas in 2023 version 1 we used a Google Document linear manuscript co-editing style).

the shared space is the primary platform for knowledge and project management at The Institute, Ecosystem, community, and individual scale. It organizes all information and content related to each project (or sub-project). the shared space is version-controlled and access-restricted, ensuring that all of our data is protected against accidental deletion and inappropriate user access. We use the shared space for storing and organizing important documents, such as policies, procedures, project plans, and meeting notes.

We follow best practices for the shared space, including: (1) creating dedicated the shared space “documents”, or work areas, for different departments or projects to ensure easy access and organization of relevant information, (2) implementing a clear folder and file structure within the shared space to maintain document organization and version control, (3) archiving unnecessary and irrelevant pages, files, and folders, and (4) granting appropriate access permissions to users, allowing them to view, edit, or comment on documents as required.

With adequate future support, the shared space will be upgraded to an Enterprise License and consultants will assist in development of templates and low-code applications for streamlining support, records and knowledge management, and project management functions. Further, an Enterprise License will allow for a variety of new mechanisms for user-access control and permissioning, and for tracking of work activity and community engagement with hosted content.

Communications

Internal Communications Plan

Institute participants, Officers, Volunteers, and other roles communicate with one another and with members of the community as follows:

• Email serves as the primary means of communication for internal announcements, updates, sharing important documents, and any other professional communications where record keeping is of interest.
• Regular Synchronous Officer Meetings are held to keep communication lines open, address questions, and discuss progress on projects. The Scientific Advisory Board meets regularly in an open discussion format. The Board of Directors meets quarterly to respond to the quarterly roundtable update and address any other issues or concerns.
• Shared Calendars are used to schedule meetings, appointments, and events, ensuring everyone is aware of each other's availability.
• The Institute-operated Discord Server is the primary location for asynchronous discussion and synchronous project meetings. Currently there are over 1000 people in the server, and we strive to keep it an accessible entry point for learning and applying Active Inference.

Organizational Communication

The Institute communicates with potential partners, sponsors, and relevant constituencies through channels including:

• Livestreams and Production provide exciting avenues for live community engagement.
• Content Announcements via X @inferenceactive, Discord, Facebook, Newsletter, LinkedIn, Bluesky @activeinference.bsky.social
  • Measurements come from The Active Inference Ecosystem and reflect: completed projects, recent publications, collaboration and other project opportunities, new releases of educational materials and tools, etc

Target Audiences

• Curious and exploratory learners from all backgrounds and levels of familiar with different subjects/skills.
• Professionals and Academics: Individuals with an interest in cognitive science, machine learning, philosophy, physics, linguistics, computer science, and related areas.
• Potential Partners: Government agencies, funding organizations, academic institutions, and other research-focused organizations.
• Active Inference Community: Researchers, academics and professionals who use and reference Active Inference and related approaches in their daily work.
• Broader Scientific Community: Researchers, academics, and professionals in compatible fields.
• Social Change Organisations: International Organisations, NGOs, civil society
• General Public: Individuals who may have a personal interest in cognitive science, machine learning, philosophy, physics, linguistics, computer science, and related areas.
• Research and Educational: Universities and academic institutions.
• Trade Associations and Think Tanks. Organizations which perform research about future industry trends, in addition to other communities of practice.
• Corporate: Companies with employees who would benefit from knowing Active Inference related approaches to business organization and operations.
• Government: Government agencies and funding vehicles.
• Private Donors: Individuals who understand the value and potential impact of this community of practice and its subject matter, and would be willing to help support it.
• Social Change Organisations: Taking basic underlying concepts and translating them into non-technical language and frameworks for organisations involved in change around large scale social issues (e.g., climate change, peace building)

Approach

The goal of our organizational communications plan is to provide the foundation for sustainable and accessible funding, and to work toward making Active Inference a household term, used as widely as “Machine Learning”, reflecting its demonstrable utility and impact in implementation. An ideal next step toward this goal is the professionalization of Active Inference core competencies and techniques and related competency and qualification standards.

Discord

Join the Discord:

The Active Inference Institute (AII) maintains a Discord server as its primary communication hub where all meetings, discussions, and collaborative activities take place. This digital shared spaces serves as the central nexus for the institute's diverse community of researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts interested in active inference.

Server Structure

Main Categories

• Research and education activities
• Project coordination
• Community discussions
• Voice chat rooms for meetings and livestreams

Key Features

The Discord server facilitates:

• Live voice meetings and discussions
• Project collaboration and coordination
• Access to educational resources
• Community engagement and networking

Participation

As with the Institute overall, the Discord server welcomes participants from:

• All backgrounds and experience levels
• Different time zones
• Various levels of familiarity with Active Inference

The server can be accessed through the link. It serves as the primary venue for all institute meetings and collaborative activities, making it an essential platform for anyone interested in engaging with the Active Inference community.

Focus Areas for the Institute

Below are some Focus Areas for the Institute, and how those are addressed by Directions for the Institute.

The Focus Areas were developed from feedback from participants, and presented here as a part of the overall milestones/snapshot.

Focus Areas

Information Management

The Institute hosts and disseminates information using the shared space, YouTube, Discord, Github, Newsletter and other platforms as needed. This stack of platforms streamlines specific levels of access to shared resources, and enhances overall productivity within the organization. We aim to ensure that participants are aware of the platforms being used and understand their purposes and functionalities. We regularly evaluate, communicate, and reinforce best practices for information storage, access, and organization. We implement security measures, such as strong passwords, 2-factor authentication, and appropriate access permission in order to protect sensitive information. We back up important data regularly to prevent loss due to technical issues or accidental deletion. We conduct periodic reviews and audits of the information storage systems to identify areas for improvement and optimization. The specific use of each platform is described below.

YouTube(Live Streaming and Video Hosting)

YouTube is the primary platform for storing audiovisual content created for and by The Institute. Our designated YouTube Channel holds distinct playlists for courses, live streams, symposia, and other content that we host. We share and embed links within internal and external communication channels to provide easy access to relevant content. The content on YouTube is also backed up in a personal cloud storage service as well as in offline hard drives.

Discord(Forum and Instant Messaging)

Discord is our primary platform for engaging with the Active Inference Ecosystem and broader community. We use Discord for real-time communication, informal discussions, and team collaboration. Dedicated channels are used within Discord to categorize discussions based on topics or projects. Participants are encouraged to share relevant files, documents, or links within Discord channels, fostering easy access to shared resources. We regularly monitor and moderate Discord channels to maintain professionalism, and eagerly look to improve our protocols and guidelines here and elsewhere.

Newsletter

Since the initial activities of the Institute (History of The Institute), we have written a monthly Newsletter.

See the archives

Quality, Performance, and Growth Evaluation

The Institute intends to evaluate quality, performance, and growth within community development at three scales, listed below, based on best practices within the Open Source community and adapted for our use-cases which include software, videos, and other products.

Participant scale

Evaluation at the level of individuals, with consideration for a plurality of individual priors (i.e., diversity in perspective, experience, culture, language, preferences, discipline, and level of expertise) and a focus on accessibility and onboarding. Objectives include quality of participant and user experience, plurality of educational mediums and formats (i.e., accessibility), networking and collaboration opportunities, and professional development. Pending grant or donor funding, The Institute will work with user experience, communications, and requirements engineering professionals to improve current and establish new feedback mechanisms and implement best practices for aforementioned evaluations. The following tools serve as a basis for evaluation:

• Individual feedback forms and surveys
• Participation (e.g., number of projects completed and contributed to)
• Continuing Professional Development (e.g., courses completed, certifications)

Institute scale

Evaluation at the level of The Institute will consider various areas such as sustainability of personal and collective efforts, support reliability, and user experience quality, and Institute quality control and improvement. Objectives include increasing collaboration opportunities, ensuring consistency and rapid handling of inconsistency in documentation, and supporting and facilitating projects. Specific metrics of quality, performance, and growth at The Institute scale may include:

• Number of participants and commits in open source projects
• Number of responses to our Volunteer and Internship forms
• Number of Newsletter signups
• Statistics on projects facilitated by The Institute (e.g., total completed, ongoing, and dissolved)
• Offered and completed Internships
• Frequency of discovery and resolution of inconsistencies in research, documentation, tools.
• Frequency of discovery and resolution of gaps in implementation (i.e., frequently questioned answers and frequently asked questions)
• Number of facilitators, stewards, and volunteers and related turnover and activity
• Aggregation of individual feedback forms and surveys

Ecosystem scale

Evaluation at the level of the Ecosystem and community scale with consideration for impact and relationship management, and a focus on impact. Objectives include minimizing turnover rate in educational courses, increasing the number of participants, and maintaining and adding partnerships. Metrics of quality, performance, and growth at the community scale may include:

• Quality and quantity of Ecosystem Projects, connected with The Active Inference Institute or not.
• Frequency and number of edits and engagements with the shared space pages
• Number of participants in Discord General Channel
• Number of participants contributing to facilitated projects
• Turnover rate in engagement and participation (e.g., direct participant engagement with Institute releases and material, and annual involvement in collaborative activities)
• Number of individuals enrolled in educational courses
• Turnover and completion rate in educational courses
• Turnover rate in partnerships (e.g., research and education partnership decisions to renew, maintain, or dissolve)
• Social media analytics (e.g., views, watch time, audience diversity)

2025

January

• Institute Programs and Activities begin for the year
• Theoretical Neurobiology (TNB) Group is now hosted at the Institute.

February

• New Partnership with, collaborating on the RxInfer.jl Learning Group and elsewhere.

March

• March 28 — 2025 Quarterly Roundtable #1

April

May

June

• June 27 — 2025 Quarterly Roundtable #2

July

• Summer break!
• Complete Project ~ Measurement to have Projects stay in active state.

August

September

• September 26 — 2025 Quarterly Roundtable #3

October

November

• November 12-14th — 5th Applied Active Inference Symposium
• Recruitment for next year Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board,
• Projects mostly finish up after the Applied Active Inference Symposium

December

• December 19 — 2025 Quarterly Roundtable #4
• We continue to review Strategy, Mission, Vision, Values, and Principles, Ecosystem Support, Philanthropy, Grants, and more.
• We select the Board of Directors for 2026.
• We have applications open for the Scientific Advisory Board for 2026

2026

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Past in 2026

January

• Institute Programs and Activities begin!
• Institute Structure clarified.
• Work ongoing with Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board related to Strategy, Ecosystem Development: Structure and Growth, and more.

February

March

• 2026 Quarterly Roundtable #1

April

History of The Institute

2020

The History of The Institute begins in the co-founder team meeting in 2020 around a common interest in Active Inference. This resulted in productive collaboration and the publication “Active Inference & Behavior Engineering for Teams” in September 2020 (Vyatkin et al. 2020). The group was then known as “Team Comm”. Check out our first livestream, ActInf Livestream #001.1 ~ “Narrative as active inference", on July 28, 2020.

Following the 2020 publication, discussions turned towards exploring approaches that could catalyze the accessibility, rigor, and applicability of Active Inference, and how to merge the developing framework with the Systems Approach and Open Source. Out of these discussions an “Active Inference Lab” (or ActInfLab) was formed and began operations in 2021.

2021

Over the first year of our operations, dozens of individuals from around the world engaged with ActInfLab through various projects such as educational Production, Open Source publishing, collaborative research projects, focused learning groups, The Active Inference Journal, and initial developments of the Active Inference Ontology.

Since the first quarter of operations in 2021, the ActInfLab hosted Quarterly Roundtable livestreams for communicating quarterly expectations and results to the community, a tradition that we continue to this day.

2022

Beginning in 2022, a cohort-based Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) was established to connect the ActInfLab to cutting-edge theoretical work as well as various domain-specific applications. As interest in both the ActInfLab’s activities and Active Inference itself began to grow, ActInfLab soon emerged as a key facilitating organization in what was then a primarily academic community working on the underlying theory and potential implications for Active Inference.

The first Active Inference textbook comes out in 2022 (Parr, Pezzulo, Friston 2022), and the Institute begins hosting a Textbook Group (ongoing through 7 cohorts in 2024). The Textbook Group is an important ecosystem service, as there are few academic/institutional locations where learners can be supported through the curriculum of the textbook and beyond. Additionally, the Institute has curated and categorized learning materials that learners create while participating in the group, including questions and discourse.

The Institute begins the Internship program to scaffold and support the learning journey of learners. Interns come from different backgrounds — including high school, college, and graduate students on academic tracks, as well as professionals and others outside of academia. Interns, with their mentors, develop a personalized education and research curriculum which lasts months-years.

In mid-2022, ActInfLab made the developmental leap to become The Active Inference Institute, a non-profit organization registered in Delaware, USA with the intention of making its facilitatory role in the community impactful and sustainable. As part of the requirements for a non-profit, we also laid out the Institute Structure, comprised of the Organizational Units: Administrative, EduActive (Education), and ReInference (Research).

At the end of 2022, the Board of Directors has its first meeting. The Board continues to meet on a quarterly basis.

2023

Institute Projects and Institute Programs continue, including the first two full course offerings: Physics course and Social Science course. These courses span months, and include office hours with the lecturer and teaching assistants.

In addition to continuing livestream Production on YouTube (GuestStream, ModelStream, PaperStream, etc), the Institute hosts the popular Active Inference Insights podcast.

During the year, we begin researching and applying for private and government Grants.

2024

Organizationally, the Institute receives official recognition as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, supporting our Philanthropy efforts. We were able to achieve this milestone with the pro bono support of the Fried Frank law firm.

The largest cohort to date of the Scientific Advisory Board makes many diverse contributions across projects.

The Fellows program begins to highlight and scaffold the work of Ecosystem member. As of November 2024, there are 5 Research Fellows have joined. Fellows represent members of the Ecosystem who have contributed substantially to the ecosystem through publications and presentations.

To meet the needs of trainees and Interns for one-on-one guidance with projects, we introduced the Mentorship program. Members of the Scientific Advisory Board and select other individuals, volunteer to mentor and connect with individual trainees.

Following the Quantum Active Inference Prepare-Measure cycle described by Chris Fields in the 2023 Physics course, we implemented a “Prepare and Measure” system for Institute Projects and Ecosystem Projects. Prepare and Measure allows people to set goals and report back when they have reached them. Project ~ Measurement can be provided by anyone about different Domains of Application for Active Inference. In contrast Project ~ Preparation describes what someone is preparing to do, whether they are just letting us know,

These always-open reporting systems are used to gauge the ongoing projects and work done by community members, and provide visibility to these updates in the newsletter.

Work during this year remains all-volunteer. Philanthropy support begins to come in, supporting some operational software costs. We applied for several Grants (such as FarmWorks and related to AI safety with the RxInfer.jl Learning Group).

The Authors collaborated on this Institute & Ecosystem leading up to the 4th Applied Active Inference Symposium on November 13th, 2024.

2025

• 5th Applied Active Inference Symposium
• AICACP is our first funded Grants.

See 2025 for all information from 2025!

2026

• See 2026 for all information on the ongoing year.

Code of Conduct

1. Context

• Understand the AII · Mission, Vision, Values, and Principles and AII · History of The Institute, and take this into thoughtful account with your engagement (e.g. in terms of what is relevant to do for or with the Institute, especially for those with informal or formal responsibilities to an organizational mission).
• Understand the open source context of the Institute, and take it into account when determining how you will make contributions to Institute projects and share information about your own projects (e.g. by not sharing proprietary information).

1. Respect and Integrity:

• Treat all members of the community with respect, dignity, and professionalism.
• Conduct work and communication with honesty, integrity, and transparency.
• Foster an engaging environment that values multiple perspectives, backgrounds, and identities and ensures opportunity for all.

1. Collaboration and Collegiality:

• Promote collaboration, teamwork, and mutual support among researchers, learners, and staff.
• Foster a culture of open communication, constructive feedback, and academic freedom, where ideas can be freely exchanged and challenged in a collaborative manner.

1. Safety and Well-being:

• Prioritize the safety, health, and well-being of all members of the community.
• Provide a supportive environment that promotes mental and physical health, work-life balance, and personal development.

1. Epistemic Norms:

• Uphold high standards of academic integrity and intellectual property rights in all research activities.
• Avoid plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, and other forms of misconduct, ensuring the credibility and reliability of the scientific product and process.

1. Professional Conduct:

• Conduct research in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and institutional policies (recognizing the global context of Institute participation).
• Maintain professional conduct in interactions with colleagues, collaborators, funders, and the broader community, avoiding conflicts of interest and maintaining confidentiality where required.

1. Accountability and Responsibility:

• Take responsibility for one's actions and decisions, acknowledging and addressing any mistakes or errors.
• Hold oneself and others accountable for upholding the principles of this code of conduct, and report any violations or concerns through email to.

1. Continuous Learning and Improvement:

• Commit to continuous learning, professional development, and the pursuit of excellence in research, teaching, and service.
• Embrace feedback, reflect on experiences, and adapt practices to contribute positively to the advancement of knowledge of adjacent ecosystems and communities affiliated with the Institute.

By adhering to this code of conduct, members of our academic and research driven institution contribute to a culture of excellence, integrity, and collaboration, fostering a positive and inclusive environment for the pursuit of knowledge and innovation.

Mission, Vision, Values, and Principles

Our Mission

To support the accessibility, rigor, and applicability of Active Inference.

Act. Infer. Serve.

The formal mission

The formal mission statement of the Institute only scratches the surface of the goals and aspirations of its members and the many parties in its broad ecosystem.

This is screenshot/text from our Form 1023 (this is from the IRS 501(c)(3) status application), submitted in 2023.

The formal mission of the Institute, seen in the screenshot to the left, is:

> Active Inference Institute, Inc. (the Institute) is dedicated to developing, supporting, and promoting open science and integrative frameworks such as active inference. In furtherance of its mission, the Institute will conduct the following activities: (1) education, (2) research, (3) grantmaking, and (4) administration.

EduActive (Education)

ReInference (Research)

Grants & Philanthropy

Administrative & Institute Structure

Our Vision

The Active Inference Institute serves as a scaffold for stabilizing and connecting myriad fields around a central tradition and approach of Active Inference.

The Institute aims to make the Active Inference framework and the Ecosystem we serve more accessible, applicable, rigorous, and integrated.

We facilitate educational, theoretical, and applied engagement with Active Inference, promoting awareness of the field within the lay, academic, public-sector, and professional communities.

We envision a future in which the term “Active Inference” is used as widely as “Machine Learning”, as a result of its demonstrated utility and impact in a variety of Domains of Application.

Our Values and Principles

We are committed to fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and innovation. Our values and principles serve as the guiding principles that shape our Strategy and define our organization's character.

• Active Inferenceand Exploration. At The Institute, we embrace the principle of Active Inference, Systems Approach, and open-ended exploration as a fundamental driving force. We cultivate a culture of curiosity and continuous learning. Through engaging in endeavors across multiple scales (person, project, Institute, Ecosystem), we enrich our understanding and make relevant contributions to our niche.
• Integrity. We strive to uphold and promote honesty, accountability, professionalism, as well as responsible conduct in research, education, and facilitation among members of The Institute, Ecosystem, and communities we serve. We foster diversity, respect, and global inclusion through community engagement. We treat differences in perspective and understanding as a wellspring of valuable creative and productive potential, driving breakthroughs and strengthening collaborative research outcomes.
• Towards Institute- and Ecosystem-Scale Generative Modeling: At The Institute, we aim to use model-based approaches towards organizational design and operation. Informally we use the Active Inference Ontology where possible, and looking towards more sophisticated computational modeling in the future. We support shared informational niches for different scales, spanning the Ecosystem, Institute, Organizational Units, and Projects. We continuously develop and refine hierarchical models, drawing on sensory information, exploiting data, and gathering feedback. Our dynamic self-modeling enables efficient resource allocation.
• Anticipatory Behavior: The Institute's commitment to anticipatory behavior equips us to excel in uncertain environments. Leveraging our internal models, we generate predictions at various scales and time horizons, empowering us to take initiative and adapt our policies accordingly. This forward-thinking approach enables us to plan strategically and make informed decisions, thus remaining at the forefront of our fields.
• Continuous Development: Embodying the ideas of open-endedness and techno-evolution, we wholeheartedly embrace the principle of continuous development at The Institute. Recognizing the dynamic nature of our environment and the constant advancements in science and technology, we continually evolve our internal models and approaches. This perpetual learning and evolution enable us to remain adaptive and at the cutting edge of our fields, driving impactful research that contributes significantly to the scientific community. In the spirit of action and perception, we encourage learners to produce and share artifacts, then receive feedback: informally and formally (through Prepare and Measure).
• Participatory Engagement: At the Institute, we encourage collaborative active learning through artifacts. Digital, stigmergic modifications of our online environment are the central method for engagement. Projects are enacted through preparation and periodic measurements that trace development through time. We support the accessibility, applicability, and inclusivity of Active Inference by seeking Open Source (and related: Open Science, DeSci) approaches where possible.

Strategy

Active Inference Institute (AII) is on the path of open-endedness.

Our Strategy considers learning and applying Active Inference for changes in the niche over multiple nested scales. Through time we increase the degree of hierarchical organizational complexity to overcome competing interactions and frustrated states.

We engage in policy selection across multiple scales, reducing our uncertainty about realizing our expectations and preferences. We learn, finding epistemic value along the way, while pragmatically ensuring Institute persistence and development.

The three scales that Active Inference Institute modifies and interact with:

• Participant as an agent. The Institute provides affordances and updates participants’ generative model via niche modification and offering of affordances.
• Institute as the agent. This is where we engage in Institute-level policies selection and evolve our shared generative model.
• The Active Inference Ecosystem as our epistemic niche.