Universal Algorithmic Intelligence

Community hub for researchers interested in Solomonoff Induction, AIXI, etc.

recent posts

Author

Cole Wyeth (colewyeth@gmail.com)

Author: Cole Wyeth

  • Q&A with Marcus Hutter at the final meeting of the IUAI reading group

    Marcus Hutter will answer any lingering questions on “An Introduction to Universal Artificial Intelligence” at the final meeting of the reading group on Monday, Jan 26th at 12 pm EST = 5 pm GMT. The zoom link is (as usual): https://uwaterloo.zoom.us/j/7921763961?pwd=TDatET6CBu47o4TxyNn9ccL2Ia8HN4.1 Note that the Australasian reading group is several chapters behind and still running.

  • David Quarel on AI Safety (Chp. 15)

    The reading group returns on Monday the 12th from a holiday break with a visit from David Quarel, who will answer questions on Chapter 15. With a focus on AI safety, this chapter is mostly less technical, so feel free to jump in here even if you missed some (or all) previous chapters. David has…

  • AIXI with general utility functions: “Value under ignorance in UAI”

    This is a linkpost for https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17086 This updated version of my (Cole Wyeth’s) AGI 2025 paper with Marcus Hutter, “Value under ignorance in universal artificial intelligence,” studies general utility functions for AIXI. Surprisingly, the (hyper)computability properties have connections to imprecise probability theory!  AIXI uses a defective Bayesian mixture called a semimeasure, which is often viewed…

  • Announcing the (Ongoing) Australasian Reading Group on “An Introduction to Universal Artificial Intelligence”

    As the first IUAI reading group draws to a close (in a few weeks), we are happy to share that a second round has already started (on Australian/Asian time) thanks to Sigfrido D. Ciletti! Description: Algorithmic Information Theory (Australasia) reading group. Meeting every week, Tuesday at 12pm AEDT (GMT+11:00) [open invitation]. This is also fairly…

  • Alexander Meulemans & Rajai Nasser on Embedded AIXI

    Alexander Meulemans and Rajai Nasser will discuss their work with Google’s Paradigms of Intelligence Team on eMbedded Universal Predictive Intelligence (MUPI): https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2511.22226 Abstract: The standard theory of model-free reinforcement learning assumes that the environment dynamics are stationary and that agents are decoupled from their environment, such that policies are treated as being separate from the world they…

  • Michele Vannucci on Surprise-Minimizing AIXI

    Michele Vannucci is a master’s student at Vrije Universiteit and a regular at the AIXI reading group. This week he will present his work on an interesting AIXI variation that minimizes surprise (in contrast to Orseau’s Knowledge-Seeking Agents) at the regular research meeting (3 pm ET tomorrow, Monday November 30th). Title: Universal Surprise-Minimizing Agents Abstract:We…

  • Alexis-Walid Ahmed on Applications of AIT to Evolutionary Genetics

    Alexis-Walid is a PhD student at Senckenberg who will describe his recent work applying ideas from AIT to evolutionary genetics: Using Hector Zenil’s tools to estimate the Kolmogorov complexity of small strings and matrices, we will see evidence of algorithmicity in genetic network evolution and protein sequences, showing that not only is evolution “aware” of…

  • Barbara Csima on Algorithmic Randomness

    At the research meeting this week (Monday November 3rd at 3 pm ET), Professor Barbara F. Csima will present on “Some Questions of Uniformity in Algorithmic Randomness”:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-symbolic-logic/article/abs/some-questions-of-uniformity-in-algorithmic-randomness/48F6187C16EA3AB535728FE3942C300E Professor Csima is a mathematician specializing in logic and computability theory at the University of Waterloo. Her talk will be our most technical so far – algorithmic randomness…

  • Cole Wyeth on Embedded Agency

    At the research meeting Monday October 27th, I will present on embedded agency in the AIXI framework, particularly overviewing these papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17882 https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16245 and some recent unpublished work: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/Go2mQBP4AXRw3iNMk/sleeping-experts-in-the-reflective-solomonoff-prior We will use the usual link: https://uwaterloo.zoom.us/j/7921763961?pwd=TDatET6CBu47o4TxyNn9ccL2Ia8HN4.1 However, the time will be 1 hour earlier than normal, 2 pm ET.

  • Aram Ebtekar on Algorithmic Thermodynamics

    Aram Ebtekar is an algorithmic information theorist and former MATS scholar who has used mathematics to make progress on hard philosophical problems from the arrow of time to AI safety to physics. He will give a talk on algorithmic thermodynamics at the regular research meeting this Monday Oct. 6th at 3 pm ET (note updated…