Researchers in the Quest aim to understand intelligence — how brains produce it and how it can be replicated in artificial systems. We approach this as a single grand challenge requiring the organized, collaborative efforts of science, engineering, the humanities and beyond. MIT’s Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines (CBMM), an NSF-funded science and technology center focused on the interdisciplinary study of intelligence and how it can be replicated in machines, is administratively housed in the Quest and is winding down its funding.
To execute on its vision, the Quest has established “Missions,” long-term collaborative projects rooted in foundational questions in and centered around a single domain of intelligence, and “Platforms,” software systems that enable Missions research in new directions and benchmarking and testing interfaces that use data from the Missions to help the researchers refine and expand their work. The Quest provides institutional support, guidance, and engineering support for each Mission.