IVADO Thematic Semester - Computational Ingredients of Reasoning

Name: IVADO Thematic Semester - Computational Ingredients of Reasoning
Start: 2026-01-27T13:30:00Z
End: 2026-03-13T22:00:00Z
Location: IVADO

IVADO

January 27 to March 13, 2026

This thematic semester aims to bring together researchers from artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and the social sciences to explore the mechanisms that enable intelligent reasoning in artificial and biological systems. Across a series of workshops and activities, the goal of the semester is to build a multidisciplinary understanding of reasoning by tracing its biological roots, examining its computational implementations in artificial systems, and outlining its role in social contexts where artificial models and biological agents interact among themselves and with each other. The semester will contain organized events that aim to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue on the study of reasoning across domains, and identify key components for its robust and safe development in AI. The principal events are the following three workshops: (1) Cognitive basis of reasoning (in minds and AI), (2) Mechanistic basis of reasoning (in brains and AI), and (3) Social Reasoning and the Ecology of Thought. These workshops will contribute to two principal thrusts:

Thrust 1: Reasoning in natural and artificial intelligence (workshops 1 and 2)

A comprehensive exploration of reasoning, bridging the gap between its biological origins and its manifestation in artificial intelligence. The initial focus will be on understanding how reasoning emerges in natural systems, drawing insights from cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and NeuroAI researchers. This will involve examining the interplay between perception and reasoning, the neural substrates of inference, and the crucial role of embodied experience in shaping cognitive processes. In parallel, the discussions will explore artificial systems, investigate modern AI architectures and algorithms that support various forms of structured cognition, including symbolic reasoning, probabilistic inference, and causal learning. Participants will delve into recent advancements in neuro-symbolic integration, large language models, and systems that combine learning with search and memory. A central theme throughout will be to compare these artificial architectures to biological reasoning systems, and explore implications critical questions for alignment and the safe and responsible development of reasoning AI.

Thrust 2: Social Reasoning and the Ecology of Thought (workshop 3)

In parallel to the exploration of abilities and mechanisms in single reasoning systems, this thrust aims to gather AI and NeuroAI researchers, computational sociologists and philosophers of mind to discuss the social aspects of reasoning agents. The goal is to explore and forecast future developments of AI agents that can reason and interact among other reasoning agents, whether biological or artificial. This effort takes credence in the fact that human reasoning is rarely an isolated act—it is embedded in discourse, shaped by norms, and motivated by communicative goals. Topics explored will include collaborative problem-solving, argumentation, theory of mind, and the ways in which reasoning can be distributed across individuals and tools. We also consider the implications for AI systems that participate in or mediate human social reasoning, as well as alignment and safety implications.

Together, activities linked to these thrusts aim to map the computational ingredients of reasoning across scales—biological, computational, and social. By integrating perspectives across disciplines, we hope to lay the groundwork for a more unified science of reasoning—one that can inform the design of intelligent systems, support cognitive interventions, and guide a responsible and aligned development of AI systems.

KEY DATES