The AGI Question
The world’s first accredited AGI program begins with intelligence itself.
CIHS’s AGI Department brings technical and human questions into the same field of inquiry: what general intelligence requires, what the study of cognition and consciousness can contribute, and how increasingly capable systems should be evaluated, governed, and developed for the benefit of humanity.
CIHS’s AGI Department brings technical and human questions into the same field of inquiry: what general intelligence requires, what the study of cognition and consciousness can contribute, and how increasingly capable systems should be evaluated, governed, and developed for the benefit of humanity.
The CIHS Approach
Three connected frontiers of AGI at CIHS.
Most AI programs focus primarily on tools, models, data systems, or applied machine learning. CIHS approaches AGI through a broader framework that connects three complementary areas of inquiry. Together, they address how general intelligence might work, how AGI relates to mind and consciousness, and what will make it safe, aligned, and beneficial for humanity.
Technical AGI Systems
Students engage the architectures and methods that may support adaptive, generalizable intelligence: cognitive architectures, neuro-symbolic systems, agentic systems, knowledge representation, evolutionary learning, embodied intelligence, self-improving systems, and future intelligence architectures. The emphasis is not simply on using AI tools, but on understanding how intelligent systems are built, evaluated, and responsibly advanced.
Cognitive Science & Consciousness Studies
AGI cannot be reduced to engineering alone. CIHS brings cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, embodiment, attention, motivation, and theories of intelligence into the center of AGI education. Students examine human consciousness and artificial minds together, asking what the study of mind can contribute to the future of machine intelligence.
Beneficial General Intelligence
As artificial systems become more capable, technical development must be joined with responsibility. The pursuit of Beneficial General Intelligence (BGI) connects technical progress with the goal of ensuring that increasingly capable AI remains safe, aligned, and beneficial for humanity. CIHS foregrounds AGI safety, value alignment, governance, human-AI coexistence, social impact, and the ethical responsibilities of building technologies that may reshape education, work, health, creativity, public life, and the future of civilization.
Bring your professional expertise and intellectual interests to the study of AGI. Professionals and researchers from computing, the sciences, psychology, medicine, law, philosophy, policy, education, and leadership can bring different perspectives to these shared questions—and explore how AGI study connects with their work and future direction.
Meet the Department Chair
Led by Gabriel Axel Montes, Ph.D.
The AGI Department is guided by a scholar and builder whose work spans neuroscience, cognitive science, consciousness, AI behavior and alignment, complex systems, governance, and the future of machine intelligence.
Gabriel Axel Montes, Ph.D.
Department Chair, Artificial General Intelligence
Founding Program Director, M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence
Dr. Montes brings together neuroscience, AI research, consciousness studies, complex systems, and applied technology development. His work centers on cognitive integrity: what it takes for minds, AI systems, institutions, and societies to remain coherent and adaptive through profound change.
Meet the AGI Faculty
Explore the backgrounds, research interests, and experience of our AGI faculty, including Ben Goertzel, Ph.D., and Matthew Iklé, Ph.D., alongside Department Chair Gabriel Axel Montes, Ph.D.
Request Information
Learn more about AGI at CIHS.
Tell us a little about your interests and questions, and we’ll follow up with more information about the M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence, admissions, and next steps.
M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence
The M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence is the first degree offered through CIHS’s AGI Department and the world’s first accredited master’s program dedicated specifically to Artificial General Intelligence. Designed for students who want to work at the frontier of advanced AI, cognition, consciousness, ethics, and responsible development, the program gives students a rigorous graduate pathway into one of the defining fields of the 21st century.
M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence
A first-of-its-kind online graduate degree connecting AGI, consciousness, and beneficial general intelligence.
CIHS’s M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence prepares students to study and engage AGI as both a technical challenge and a human question. The program brings together advanced AI systems, cognitive science, consciousness studies, AGI safety, alignment, ethics, and governance within a structured graduate curriculum culminating in an original final project connected with your professional or intellectual goals.
Explore the M.S. →M.S. in AGI begins classes and expands to quarterly entry and part-time study
CIHS’s online M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence will welcome students in Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, with both full-time and part-time pathways.
Applications are now open for Winter 2027.
CIHS launches the world’s first accredited M.S. in AGI
Read the original announcement introducing CIHS’s AGI program and its distinctive approach to intelligence, cognition, consciousness, and ethics.
Read the Announcement →The AGI launch press release
The original launch press release, published on Markets Insider, introduces the program and its founding faculty.
View the Press Release ↗The AGI Department at CIHS is building an academic home for students, researchers, builders, and thinkers who want to help shape the future of intelligence with technical rigor, ethical responsibility, and depth of inquiry.