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The MIT Quest for Intelligence

The Science of Intelligence meets the Engineering of Intelligence

Spotlights

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Opportunity

We're Hiring!

The Quest is currently searching for a Senior Development Officer and for a Corporate Engagement Manager. Please consider joining our team!

image of objects suspended out of context (a teakettle in a woodland setting, for example) from the paper, overlaid with an image of an eye

Research

New insights to the function of the brain’s ventral visual stream

Jim DiCarlo, Josh Tenenbaum, and collaborators are researching a major brain pathway that processes visual information. Computational models show that the ventral stream may be more versatile than previously thought and may perform other functions. 

Event

Cognitive Tools for Making the Invisible Visible

Stanford University Assistant Professor of Psychology Judy Fan spoke at the BCS Colloquium in conjunction with the Quest for Intelligence on Thursday, March 20th. Watch the talk and Q&A.

CBMM logo

Our Roots

Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines

The Quest for Intelligence is built on the Foundations of CBMM, a a multi-institutional NSF Science and Technology Center dedicated to the study of intelligence — how the brain produces intelligent behavior and how we may be able to replicate intelligence in machines.

stylized image of brain overlaid with "We Are Hiring"

Opportunity

We're Hiring!

The Quest is currently searching for a Senior Development Officer and for a Corporate Engagement Manager. Please consider joining our team!

image of objects suspended out of context (a teakettle in a woodland setting, for example) from the paper, overlaid with an image of an eye

Research

New insights to the function of the brain’s ventral visual stream

Jim DiCarlo, Josh Tenenbaum, and collaborators are researching a major brain pathway that processes visual information. Computational models show that the ventral stream may be more versatile than previously thought and may perform other functions. 

Event

Cognitive Tools for Making the Invisible Visible

Stanford University Assistant Professor of Psychology Judy Fan spoke at the BCS Colloquium in conjunction with the Quest for Intelligence on Thursday, March 20th. Watch the talk and Q&A.

CBMM logo

Our Roots

Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines

The Quest for Intelligence is built on the Foundations of CBMM, a a multi-institutional NSF Science and Technology Center dedicated to the study of intelligence — how the brain produces intelligent behavior and how we may be able to replicate intelligence in machines.

    Missions + Platforms

    To understand intelligence, the Quest fosters and funds research Missions, which are supported by Platforms.

    • Brain-Score

      The Brain-Score platform aims to yield accurate, machine-executable computational models of how the brain gives rise to the mind. Read More

    • The Development of Intelligent Minds

      This mission aims to understand how children grasp new concepts and build upon layers of concepts to reach an understanding of the world. Read More

    • Intelligence Observatory

      The Intelligence Observatory is a human behavioral testing and benchmarking platform. Read More

    • Perceptual Intelligence

      The Perceptual Intelligence mission aims  to produce machine executable models of human visual intelligence. Read More

    • Embodied Intelligence

      The Embodied Intelligence mission addresses how we perceive the world around us and integrate this information to plan and complete tasks. Read More

    • Language

      The Language mission aims to understand the relationship between language and human intelligence. Read More

    • Scaling Inference

      The Scaling Inference team pursues an alternate scaling route for AI systems and for NI models, based on inference in probabilistic programs. Read More

    See all Missions + Platforms »

    News

    • Tomás Lozano-Pérez elected to membership in NAE

      Professor Tomás Lozano-Pérez is one of the 150 new members of the National Academy of Engineering.

    • Prof. Ev Fedorenko to receive Troland Research Award

      The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently announced that MIT Associate Professor Evelina Fedorenko will receive a 2025 Troland Research Award for her groundbreaking contributions toward understanding the language network in the human brain.

    • Teaching robots their limits

      The “PRoC3S” method helps an LLM create a viable action plan by testing each step in a simulation. This strategy could eventually aid in-home robots to complete more ambiguous chore requests.

    See all news »