On 29 and 30 May 2025, the GRCDI hosted a group of eighteen researchers from across the globe for a workshop on accelerating collaboration between artificial and natural intelligences.
The residential meeting took place at a beautiful mansion called The Burn House in the rural Scottish village of Edzell. The Burn House is managed by Goodenough College, a charitable organization that supports educational gatherings. Discussion sessions focused on key questions; what are the gaps in knowledge? What is limiting progress in cognitive science, AI and robotics? What don’t we understand yet about natural and artificial intelligence? How can we design innovative methods to address these questions? Can connections across disciplines help us to better leverage expertise that is currently siloed to address them? What questions, when answered, would have the biggest impact?
Participants shared fascinating insights from their research, highlighting areas where collaboration between disciplines was crucial or could open new avenues in the future. In discussions, they were encouraged to think ‘big and bold’ to identify gaps in research that could be addressed by harnessing the scope of the full global ARCANI network, covering computing, robotics, pure and applied mathematics, philosophy, psychology, comparative cognition and neuroscience. Finally, participants came together to explore ‘Who can help us close those gaps – how should we build ARCANI into a network of networks?
Participants also enjoyed the charm of the Scottish countryside with lunchtime group walks along the River Esk (and the neighbouring ‘burn’; a Scots term for a stream or small river). At nightfall, activities included games of croquet on the mansion lawn and table tennis and snooker in the games room, continuing into the night!
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About ARCANI Accelerating Research Collaboration between Artificial and Natural Intelligences.
The ARCANI project is led by Erica Cartmill, Jacob Foster and Pranab Das. It is funded by the NSF to connect existing networks studying intelligence in different forms to examine what the next frontiers of research might be. Details on the project can be found here https://www.arcanigroup.org/.