Congruence
in Context
The first in a series of conversations between Vajrayana practitioners and researchers in AI and cognitive science. Each session brings the two fields into dialogue around how we know, think, feel, and act. This first conversation asks what kind of beings we are, and what follows for how we build, and relate to, AI.
9:00–11:00 AM MDT
Online, Zoom
Vajrayana emerged in early medieval India, in a period of political fragmentation and ideological upheaval. Unlike most other strands in Buddhism, it is non-renunciative: its methods embrace complexity, ambiguity, and mess. It tends to surface when a society's categories no longer fit its circumstances.
We now share the world with systems that converse, act under uncertainty, and roleplay convincingly. AIs prompt us to ask what kind of beings we are—how we are, and are not, like them. As we interact with these systems, our categories shift, and our understanding of what makes us human shifts with them.
Vajrayana has been working in the nebulous zone of shifting categories for more than a thousand years.
These conversations set aside the intractable question of what it means to be conscious and turn to fertile ground in the space of interaction. How does any agent, human or artificial, come into congruence with its context? Each session takes up one aspect of that question.
A two-hour live conversation with a participatory public audience. Two guest speakers will each present their work and their particular interest in this intersection, then move into a moderated exchange.
This session will open the conversation. We're not expecting to resolve conflicting ideas or to reach conclusions. We will set the frame, surface the most generative questions, and establish the ground that future conversations will build on.
Vajrayana practitioner and cognitive scientist. Tim teaches and does research in linguistics, computer science, and cognitive science and is currently working on probabilistic systems for cognitive AI and the sciences of the mind. He is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at McGill University and holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila—Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Vajrayana practitioner and computer scientist. Sasha is the author of the Psychonaut Diaries Substack, where he documents his meditation practice. He is a research scientist at Google DeepMind, where he worked on hierarchical reinforcement learning, multi-agent RL, agent-based modeling and social simulation. He is currently working on mapping the post-AGI future.
Vajrayana teacher. Author of Opening Awareness, a guide to the practice of spacious clarity, and cofounder of Evolving Ground, a community of contemporary Vajrayana practice. Charlie runs leadership training for researchers and founders at the intersection of Vajrayana and developmental psychology.
Meditation coach and independent researcher. Andrew guides leaders and groups to find fluid congruence, drawing on principles and methods from Vajrayana. He is currently exploring computational models of contemplative practice, and writes Immediacy, a Substack about practice and human development.
Andrew will introduce the purpose of these conversations, then Charlie will outline the Vajrayana context.
Tim and Sasha outline what draws each of them to the meeting of AI and Vajrayana and the work they're doing at this intersection.
A moderated exchange exploring where these perspectives may illuminate or complicate each other. What might Vajrayana offer to AI research, and vice versa?
Exploratory questions for the audience, pursued in smaller groups of three or four.
Speakers share from their breakout. Audience invited to Q&A with the speakers.
The conversation will be recorded for the first two hours, then unrecorded after hours for those who would like to stay in the room. The recording will not be made public. Short clips may be shared later, and the recording may be made available to attendees of later conversations in the series.
Is this for you?
This is a working conversation, not an introduction. We won't be explaining Vajrayana from first principles, and we won't be debating whether AI is good or bad.
It will likely suit you if you work in or around AI and wonder what a mature contemplative tradition has to say about agents, context, and appropriate response. This initial conversation will open questions, laying the ground for future explorations. We're not expecting to solve problems or find resolutions.
It probably isn't for you if you're looking for a position statement on AI ethics, a guide to Buddhist practice, or an introduction to AI.
Congruence in Context