Cambridge Digital Minds

This site is under development. Please enter the password to continue.

Digital Minds Fellowship

A five-day residential programme designed to build capacity in the digital minds space, combining technical and philosophical foundations, societal and policy thinking, and structured support for project development.

3–7 August 2026 5 Days
Cambridge University United Kingdom
10–15 Fellows Selective Cohort

The Digital Minds Fellowship is an intensive programme for individuals poised to make significant contributions to research on AI consciousness, AI welfare, and the societal implications of digital minds.

Unlike established fields such as AI safety and governance, digital minds research is still nascent. This creates unique challenges: identifying promising research questions is harder, career paths are less clear, and the community is smaller. The fellowship is designed to address these challenges directly.

Fellows will develop foundational knowledge spanning both technical realities of current AI systems and philosophical frameworks for thinking about consciousness and moral status. They will learn to think strategically about long-term trajectories, identify intervention points, and evaluate where effort is best directed. And they will gain the skill of scoping good projects in a field where this is particularly difficult.

Programme Goals

What we aim to achieve with each cohort of fellows.

Build Foundational Knowledge

Ensure fellows have solid grounding in both the technical realities of current AI systems and the philosophical frameworks for thinking about consciousness and moral status.

Develop Strategic Thinking

Equip fellows to think about long-term trajectories, identify risks and intervention points, and evaluate where effort is best directed in this emerging field.

Teach Project Scoping

Help fellows learn how to identify promising research questions and projects in a nascent field where this is harder than in established areas like AI safety or governance.

Build Community

Create lasting connections among fellows and between fellows and mentors; seed a network of people working seriously on digital minds questions.

Programme Structure

Three modules combining taught sessions, group discussions, working sessions, and presentations.

1

Philosophical & Technical Foundations

2 Days

This module provides technical grounding in AI cognition and LLM architectures, alongside philosophical frameworks for evaluating consciousness and moral status. Fellows will leave able to apply these frameworks to real systems.

Topics Include:

  • LLM architecture fundamentals: transformers, attention mechanisms, training paradigms
  • What current architectures might (and might not) imply for cognition and experience
  • Philosophical theories of consciousness and their application to AI
  • Evidence frameworks for assessing machine sentience
  • Key uncertainties and open questions in the field
2

Societal Implications & Strategy

2 Days

This module develops foresight and intervention-oriented thinking. Fellows will leave with skills in scenario planning, an understanding of the societal intervention landscape, and a sense of where effort might be most valuable.

Topics Include:

  • Scenario planning: mapping plausible trajectories for digital minds through ~2100
  • Identifying risks, decision points, and branching futures
  • Intervention design: messaging strategies, policy frameworks, institutional approaches
  • Public communication and stakeholder engagement
  • Group exercise: develop scenarios, identify key risks, and propose interventions
3

Project Scoping & Career Planning

1 Day

Building on pre-programme mentor conversations, this module focuses on developing well-scoped, high-quality project ideas and clear next steps. The primary goal is teaching the skill of identifying and shaping good projects in the digital minds space.

Fellows Will Learn:

  • What questions matter and why
  • What is feasible given current knowledge and resources
  • Where the genuine gaps are in the field
  • How to match skills and interests to high-impact opportunities
  • How to develop an idea from initial concept to concrete, actionable plan

Fellows Will Leave With:

  • A clearly articulated project idea or research agenda
  • A rough plan for how it could be pursued after the fellowship
  • An understanding of what support or partnerships would be needed

Pre-Programme Phase

Preparation begins before you arrive in Cambridge.

Online Course Requirement

All fellows must complete the Digital Minds online course or demonstrate significant familiarity with the core literature before arrival.

This ensures a shared baseline and allows the in-person programme to go deeper rather than covering introductory material.

Mentor Pairing

Fellows are matched with an appropriate mentor at least one month before the fellowship. You'll have a pre-programme meeting to:

Get to know each other, discuss your background and interests, explore potential project directions, and begin learning how to identify good projects in the digital minds space.

Who Should Apply

The fellowship is designed for individuals who are well-positioned to make meaningful contributions to digital minds research and who would benefit from intensive training and community building.

  • 1

    Graduate Students

    Especially those in philosophy who are already working on or adjacent to digital minds. Graduate students can leverage university funding and positions to pursue research in this area.

  • 2

    Professionals

    Those in government, policy, or industry with existing roles who want to shift their focus toward digital minds. The fellowship can help you understand the landscape and identify how your skills and position could contribute.

  • 3

    Exceptional Earlier-Stage Individuals

    Those with strong demonstrated ability who are committed to working on digital minds questions, even if earlier in their careers.

Unlike AI safety and governance, there are fewer established positions in digital minds. The fellowship aims to be realistic about career paths while helping fellows identify or create opportunities.

Connection to the Workshop

The fellowship (Monday–Friday) feeds directly into the Expert Workshop (Saturday–Sunday), which brings together approximately 50 participants including fellows, mentors, and additional researchers and practitioners. Fellows may present project ideas or scenario outputs, and gain exposure to senior researchers and the broader community.

Apply for the Fellowship

Applications for the inaugural cohort (August 2026) will open in Spring 2026.

Stay Updated