The Fellowship.
A global fellowship programme. The standing society of Thinking About Thinking. Fellows and ambassadors at work in more than 200 cities, in almost as many countries, kept in correspondence across the year.
The Fellowship is the standing society of Thinking About Thinking. It is composed of fellows and ambassadors: researchers, engineers, clinicians, artists and founders working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive science, robotics and mathematics. Members are distributed across more than 200 cities and almost as many countries; admission is by application or invitation and the membership grows by introduction.
The Fellowship exists to do three things. It gathers: in person at seminars, conferences and salons and online in the Common Room and the Thought Channel, where ideas are kept across the year. It corresponds: fellows and ambassadors light each other's work, exchange papers and books in the Reading Room and write to one another in private. It convenes: co-hosting events with universities, labs, galleries and gardens whose work runs alongside our own.
What holds it together is a shared interest in one question: what intelligence is and how it comes to be. Every fellow's profile, every reading list and every ping in the Common Room is, in some sense, a piece of correspondence about that question.
This month's honorands.
Each month the Society recognises one Fellow and one Ambassador whose contribution to the institution stands out. This month:
Ambassador, then Fellow.
Membership is reached in two steps. The Ambassador Programme is the open application route and is, in our experience, how most contributors first meet the institution. The Fellowship is the invitation-only standing body; it is reached by sustained contribution and by introduction.
By application. The principal way most people first meet the Society.
The Ambassador Programme is a year-long, contribution-based role for students and early-career researchers engaged in serious, interdisciplinary work on intelligence. It is designed to scale across universities, labs and time zones, while preserving the intellectual standards that, in our view, make the work worth doing.
The level of contribution is flexible. Activities are recorded and, where appropriate, acknowledged. Ambassadors who contribute consistently and well are considered for the invitation-only Fellowship.
- Support the promotion and delivery of conferences, summits and seminars.
- Share academic opportunities within their institutions and networks.
- Coordinate local meetups, reading groups and small gatherings.
- Serve as a liaison between the Society and their university or lab.
- Take part actively in our community discussions, on and off the record.
- Early or discounted access to events and conferences, free in some cases.
- Invitations to online seminars and community sessions.
- Recognition within the Thinking About Thinking community.
- Networking opportunities across disciplines and countries.
- A clear pathway toward the Fellowship.
We read every application.
Applications are open on a rolling basis and read personally. Intellectual seriousness is, in our view, the more useful criterion; credential the less.
Write to applyBy invitation. The long walk in.
The Fellowship is the invitation-only standing body of the institution. Admission is by sustained contribution to the work, the correspondence and the standards of the Society and is intended, in our view, to mark the beginning of a long and active membership rather than the end of a process.
- A commitment to careful thinking, clarity and engagement with complex ideas.
- A history of organising: meetups, hackathons, journal clubs, reading groups.
- Sustained involvement with the Society over time.
- Willingness to engage across disciplines, perspectives and methods.
- Generosity and reliability in contribution to the discussion.
- Private, closed-door seminars with invited speakers and peers.
- Priority and VIP access to summits, conferences and salons.
- Direct engagement with speakers and institutional leaders.
- A long-term intellectual community, with ongoing membership.
- Work references from the executive team where appropriate.
There are no mandatory outputs, quotas, or performance metrics.
AE Global Summit
Open Problems for AI. The institution's annual three-day meeting in London. 25 to 27 November 2026.
Read more →Events and seminars
The conferences, seminars and salons of Thinking About Thinking. Some public, some by application, some by invitation.
Read more →Recordings
Talks, panels and seminar sessions from across the institution's events, retained as the institution has held them.
Read more →