Could humans and AI become so interdependent that they form a new kind of evolutionary individual? In this op-ed, SFI External Professor Michael Hochberg and co-author Paul Rainey explore whether deepening interdependence between humans and AI could lead to a new form of evolutionary individuality.

Catch up on our most recent Community Lecture: "Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI" with Dan Rockmore. This was the fifth of six community lectures for 2025, and all are available to watch on SFI’s YouTube channel. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2al0jNTDC8

In an essay for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, SFI External Professor Allison Stanger examines how AI firms are reshaping infrastructure, governance, and power. Her piece draws historical parallels and raises pressing questions about the role of private technology in public life.

Tomorrow: the 5th event in SFI’s 2025 Community Lecture Series! Join us at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for Dan Rockmore’s lecture, “Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI” — 7:30pm. Free tickets: lensic.org/events/sfi-d... or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers are working backward — starting with the result to learn the rules behind it. @georgemusser.com, SFI’s 2025 Journalism Fellow, explores how this could reshape computation and self-organization in Quanta:

In August, an SFI working group explored the challenges and opportunities of digital-twin technology—virtual representations of physical objects, designed not as simple models but as complex systems that use real-time data to mirror their real-world counterparts. santafe.edu/news

In July, NSF announced a $100M investment in AI research across six institutes. Three SFI researchers will contribute: @melaniemitchell.bsky.social & Melanie Moses (UNM) on science underlying AI tools for mental health, and Cris Moore on ML methods for AI accuracy and reliability. santafe.edu/news

The 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships applications are open, offering early-career scholars intellectual freedom, transdisciplinary collaboration with leading researchers, and a competitive salary with research and collaboration funds. Deadline: Oct 1, 2025 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Reserve your free tickets to SFI’s Community Lecture with Dan Rockmore: “Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI,” on September 16, 7:30pm at @TheLensic. Generative AI is reshaping how people come up with ideas — for better and for worse. Tickets: lensic.org/events/sfi-d...

Can courts safeguard fairness in an AI age?  SFI's Cris Moore and Stephanie Forrest, with colleagues in the Computing Community Consortium, offer guidance on how AI might be used responsibly in the U.S. criminal justice system. https://santafe.edu/news

The latest issue of SFI's monthly e-newsletter is now available. Catch up on August's news and sign up to receive the next issue in your inbox. https://f.mtr.cool/wcwqgvjctd

SFI welcomes ten new External Faculty members for 2025. These distinguished researchers expand our global network and help advance the science of complex systems across disciplines and institutions. Learn more about them here: santafe.edu/news

Did you miss SFI’s 30th Ulam Lectures with Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan? They're now available to watch on SFI’s YouTube channel. Two lectures on the molecular machinery of life and the science of aging. Watch here: Night 1 - youtu.be/xJ5BFBbakSk&t Night 2 - youtu.be/uhK9ElOZ7n4

Tomorrow: Venki Ramakrishnan returns for night two of the 30th Ulam Lecture Series to explore what science reveals about aging and death—and the future of longevity. Based on his 2024 book Why We Die. Free tickets: lensic.org/events/30th-ulam-lecture-series or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

Tomorrow: Venki Ramakrishnan opens the 30th Ulam Lecture Series with a look inside the ribosome — the molecular machine making life possible. He’ll discuss his Nobel-winning work and advances in visualizing life at the atomic scale. Free tickets: https://lensic.org or watch online on SFI’s YouTube

SFI President David Krakauer joins StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson to discuss emergence and the scientific frameworks that help us search for order in the complexity of evolving worlds.  Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/wGhRW-pJWIc?si=d_cFoKVA-Af9foBy

It might start as a joke, belief, or rumor, easy to dismiss. But then it twists, builds momentum, and spreads like wildfire. Why do some ideas die out while others go viral? A new study by researchers from the University of Vermont and the Santa Fe Institute offers answers: santafe.edu/news

Unfold the history of proteins and you find rich, unexplained complexity. This August, an SFI working group with @ELSI_origins and @ASU_SCAS used machine learning and assembly theory to explore hidden rules underlying all folded matter, from proteins to potential new drugs. santafe.edu/news

Applications are open for SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI offers early-career scholars intellectual freedom, competitive benefits, research funds, and collaboration with leading scientists. Learn more: santafe.edu/news-center/news/join-sfi-as-a-complexity-postdoctoral-fellow

In an essay for The New Yorker, SFI External Professor Dan Rockmore reflects on how AI is becoming a creative partner in research — not just answering prompts, but offering them — placing it in the long tradition of tools, from writing to the printing press, that have reshaped human creativity.

Reserve your free tickets to SFI’s 30th Ulam Lectures with Venki Ramakrishnan, August 25 and 26, 7:30pm at @TheLensic. One night on decoding life’s machinery — the ribosome — and one on the science of aging. Join in person or stream online. santafe.edu/events/venki-ramakrishnan-community-lecture

Collaborate with researchers globally. Chart your transdisciplinary path. Apply to SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. Competitive pay, research funds, and generous benefits to become a leader in transdisciplinary research. Deadline: Oct 1, 2025 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

In this SFI seminar, 2025 Journalism Fellow George Musser introduces the “Inside/Outside problem,” exploring how the observer’s perspective is the key to physics puzzles — from quantum measurement to time — and how journalism can help bridge scientific fields. http://youtu.be/Fwtb6vxqgNE

The Summer 2025 issue of Parallax is here! Explore the latest research, ideas, and voices from the Santa Fe Institute community in our quarterly newsletter. Read the new issue online now. sfi-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/sfi-edu/prod...

Direct your research. Forge lifelong connections. Apply for the 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI is looking for recent PhD graduates with quantitative and computational skills interested in theoretical collaborative research. Deadline: Oct 1, 2025 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Metascience will be essential for navigating an uncertain future. In his Undark column, SFI Professor Brandon Ogbunu explores how metascience offers insights into the structures, incentives, and vulnerabilities shaping modern research. https://undark.org/2025/07/31/opinion-metascience-essential/

In this SFI seminar, @quantamagazine.bsky.social  senior video producer and 2025 SFI Journalism Fellow Emily Buder shows how animation and storytelling can translate complex ideas — like quantum gravity — into resonant narratives without losing intellectual depth. https://youtu.be/1kgqjPkVkvg

SFI President David Krakauer discusses the distinction between knowledge and intelligence in the age of AI, the concept of “exbodiment,” and what true emergence might mean for large language models. Watch the full interview with Machine Learning Street Talk: http://youtu.be/jXa8dHzgV8U

Applications are open for SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships If you’ve recently earned a Ph.D. in any scientific field and want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research, consider applying. Deadline: October 1, 2025 Apply here: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

SFI External Professor Dmitri Tymoczko (Princeton University) explores universal mathematical structures underlying music’s fundamental elements: pulse, pitch, and transformed repetition. As well as its implications for how we understand music and other philosophical questions. youtu.be/PQPgQ4VmQ7o

This spring, SFI’s Board of Trustees elected Ian McKinnon and Sam Peters as Chair and Vice-Chair. Long-time SFI supporters with New Mexico roots, they bring decades of insight, generosity, and leadership to their new roles, alongside a renewed term for SFI President David Krakauer. santafe.edu/news

Catch up on our most recent Community Lecture: "Whom Do We Trust? How AI Is (Re)Shaping Our Interactions Today" with Gillian Tett.  This was the third of six community lectures for 2025, and all are available to watch on SFI’s YouTube channel. Watch here: http://youtu.be/AVXnBLh9tWY

Tomorrow: the 3rd event in SFI’s 2025 Community Lecture Series! Join us at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for Gillian Tett’s lecture, “Whom Do We Trust? How AI Is (Re)Shaping Our Interactions Today” — 7:30pm. Free tickets: lensic.org/events/gillian-tett or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

An SFI workshop supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation explored whether the field of history — long focused on the particularity of human experience — can incorporate lessons from complexity science and evolutionary biology, without losing sight of human freedom and agency. santafe.edu/news

What can ancient houses tell us about inequality? A recent PNAS special feature, co-edited by Tim Kohler & Amy Bogaard, with contributions from Scott Ortman, uses data from 53,000 homes to trace how wealth disparities emerged, shifted, and narrowed over 10,000 years. www.santafe.edu/news

Reserve your free tickets for SFI’s Community Lecture with Gillian Tett: “Whom Do We Trust? How AI Is (Re)Shaping Our Interactions Today”. July 22, 7:30pm at @TheLensic. How is AI changing trust in society? Join us in person or watch online on SFI's YouTube. Tickets: lensic.org/events/gillian-tett

How do we measure success, impact, and safety in #generativeAI models that engage with the world? Frontier labs in #AI searched for answers to this question at a studio co-organized by @googledeepmind.bsky.social researchers and the SFI Office of Applied Complexity. Read more: santafe.edu/news

Daniel Messenger (LANL) discusses how weak-form inference methods can help derive macroscale descriptions from microscale observations. The approach is robust against noise and non-smooth dynamics, with applications from cell migration to kinetic-hydrodynamic systems. 

Tristan Duke brings art and science together in his Glacial Optics project, documenting rapidly melting glaciers with a camera lens made from ice, retracing John Muir’s glacial surveys, and even developing giant photographs using Pinyon pine needles from SFI’s Cowan campus. youtu.be/4kXX_l0Jhkc?...

SFI’s Anthony Eagan reviews "The Philosophy of Ted Chiang." He praises it as a rare, thoughtful look at how Chiang’s sci-fi raises deep philosophical questions, not by design, but as a natural part of his creative process, exploring time, consciousness, and agency. www.santafe.edu/news-center/...

Catch up on our recent Community Lecture with Kyle Harper! The lecture, Climate Change and Contagion — Complex Crises Past and Present, is available on SFI’s YouTube channel.

Congratulations to SFI's @annaclemencia.bsky.social, a recipient of the 2025 Whitman Center Fellowship from @mblscience.bsky.social. The 10-week fellowship supports Guerrero’s research on scientific imagery about the microscopic world. santafe.edu/news-center/...

Join us tomorrow at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for an SFI Community Lecture with Kyle Harper! The lecture, Climate Change and Contagion — Complex Crises Past and Present, begins at 7:30pm with a book signing in the lobby at 6:30pm. santafe.edu/events/clima...

A common narrative in the U.S. links a city’s political leanings with its level of racial bias. These assumptions are often too simple, suggests a new study by SFI's Andrew Stier and Brandon Ogbunu. Nearly 40% of cities analyzed do not conform to partisan expectations. santafe.edu/news-center/...

Traditional models of cultural evolution haven’t held up in the face of modern-day constructs like social media and easy global travel. Last month, @psmaldino.bsky.social and collaborators convened a working group to build new models for the 21st century. www.santafe.edu/news-center/...

Congratulations to SFI External Professor Mahzarin Banaji, a recipient of this year's BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Science! Banaji and four others are recognized for their work revolutionizing how we understand and measure attitudes. santafe.edu/news-center/...

Reserve your free in-person tickets to SFI's upcoming Community Lecture! lensic.org/events/kyle-... Kyle Harper’s talk on “Climate Change and Contagion — Complex Crises Past and Present” at @TheLensic on 🗓️ June 18, begins at 7:30 pm MT and will also stream online.

Catch up on our recent Community Lecture with Blaise Agüera y Arcas! The lecture, Computing, Life, and Intelligence, is available on SFI’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/live/75PAyV8... @blaiseaguera.bsky.social

Join us tomorrow at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for an SFI Community Lecture with Blaise Agüera y Arcas! The lecture, Computing, Life, and Intelligence, begins at 7:30 p.m. with a book signing in the lobby at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: lensic.org/events/blais...

Congratulations to SFI Postdoc Kaleda Denton, the runner-up for this year’s John Maynard Smith Award from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology! @eseb.bsky.social santafe.edu/news-center/...