ActInfLab ~ June 2022 Newsletter with Special Announcement ~ 🅰️👀

Hello,

This email contains updates on our activities during June 2022, and plans for the coming months.

Special Announcement

• As of June 2022, we are in the process of transforming at the organizational scale from being Active Inference Lab, into the Active Inference Institute (AII, 🅰️👀).

• This new Markov Blanket of AII will reflect the development of services that we are providing for our epistemic niche, aligned with our strategic commitment to support Education, Research, and Engagement around Active Inference.

• More details on the impact of this transformation are discussed towards the end of our Quarterly Lab Roundtable meeting from June 30th.

Education

• We are preparing an internship program (more details to come).

• The first cohort of the Active Inference Textbook Group will finish with part 1 of the textbook (chapters 1-5) in July. In September, we will begin two new cohorts of Textbook Group:

  • Another cohort of new learners will begin the Textbook from the beginning (cohort 2). Register for the Textbook Group cohort beginning in September 2022. Cohort 1 participants are also welcome to join this second cohort, if they want to go over chapters 1-5 again

  • Those who have participated in cohort 1 part 1, will have the affordance to participate in cohort 1 of textbook part 2 (chapters 6-10 and model building).

• We will have a Systems Thinking Summer Intensive during August 2022, focusing on the theory & practice of Roles.

  • Register for the August 2022 Systems Thinking Summer Intensive

  • Asynchronous participation in the Summer Intensive will primarily be based around reading texts, writing short reflections, and seeing how we use Roles in ongoing Lab projects.

  • Synchronous meetings for the Summer Intensive will be Mondays at 15 UTC in August (1, 8, 15, 22, 29). At these meetings we’ll address questions, discuss various topics, and discover participation affordances in projects.

Research & Development

• Registration (free) is now open for the 2nd Applied Active Inference Symposium on the theme of “Robotics”. The proceedings will be watchable live and also immediately available for rewatching.

• The timing of the Symposium is: on July 31 from 4-8 & 16-20 UTC (two intervals of 4 hours, separated by 8 hour break).

Outreach & Engagement

• The ActInf Podcast is available on Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Podbean

• This month we had discussions on Active Inference research across different domains.

  • ActInfLab GuestStream #023.1 ~ Maxwell Ramstead and Dalton Sakthivadivel was on “Rebooting the Free Energy Principle Literature”, where they discussed their recent collaboration "On Bayesian Mechanics: A Physics of and by Beliefs".

  • GuestStream #024.1 with Stephen Grossberg, "Explainable and Reliable AI" raised many important insights and challenges for the Active Inference field and beyond. Prof Grossberg presented and gave live comments, on his long history of working with the Adaptive Resonance Model

• The only livestream in July will be Bobby Azarian in GuestStream #015.2, at July 5th at 19 UTC.

  • We will not have any paper discussions during July, and will return with weekly Livestream discussions in August.

Register here for more information on participating in the Active Inference Institute.
All backgrounds, time zones, time availabilities, and level of familiarity with Active Inference are welcome and encouraged at AII.

Let us know via reply to this email if you have any other ideas or questions.

Active Inference Institute