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, 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 Organization, 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
See 2025 for more information on the ongoing year!