Social Reasoning and the Ecology of Thought

This workshop will emphasize the social mechanisms of reasoning; between humans, humans and AI, and between AIs. This workshop will gather AI and NeuroAI researchers, computational sociologists and philosophers of mind. The goal is to explore and forecast future developments of AI agents that can reason and interact among other reasoning agents, whether biological or artificial. This effort takes credence in the fact that human reasoning is rarely an isolated act—it is embedded in discourse, shaped by norms, and motivated by communicative goals. Topics explored will include collaborative problem-solving, argumentation, theory of mind, and the ways in which reasoning can be distributed across individuals and tools. We also consider the implications for AI systems that participate in or mediate human social reasoning, as well as alignment and safety implications.

Blaise Agüera y Arcas (Google), Ashton Anderson (University of Toronto), Christopher Bail (Duke University), Philippe Beaudoin (LawZero), Beba Cibralic (RAND), Nouha Dziri (Allen AI2), James Evans (University of Chicago/Google), Gauthier Gidel (Université de Montréal, Mila), Laura Globig (New York University), Bálint Gyevnár (Carnegie Mellon University), Cameron Jones (Stony Brook University), Bernard Koch (University of Chicago), Kristina Lerman (Indiana University), Joel Leibo (Google DeepMind), Roberta Rocca (Google), Jonathan Simon (Université de Montréal), Winnie Street (Google), Thalia Wheatley (Dartmouth College).

TUESDAY, MARCH 10th, 2026

9:30 – 9.50 a.m.: Welcome and Registration

9:50 – 10 a.m.: Welcome Address

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Reasoning Models Generate Societies of Thought
James Evans (University of Chicago, Google)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Simulating Emergent Behavior on Social Media
Christopher Bail (Duke University)

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1:45 – 2.30 p.m.: LLMs as Simulacra of Human Social Reasoning
Cameron Jones (Stony Brook University)

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: Unseeing Agency
Beba Cibralic (RAND)

3.15 – 3.45 p.m. : Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.30 p.m.: In Search of Diversity: the Values Behind our RL Benchmarks
Gauthier Gidel (Université de Montréal, Mila)

4.30 – 5 p.m. : Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11th, 2026

9:30 – 10 a.m.: Welcome and Coffee

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Tandem Training: a Reinforcement-Learning Framework for Social Agents
Ashton Anderson (University of Toronto)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Cognitive Alignment and Social Reasoning in Humans and AI
Roberta Rocca (Google) – Remote

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own + Move to Mila

Afternoon at Mila

1:45 – 2.30 p.m.: Identifying the Atoms of Meaning in Biological and Artificial Visual Processing
Thalia Wheatley (Dartmouth College)

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: The Social Scaling of AI
Blaise Agüera y Arcas (Google)

3.15 – 3.45 p.m. : Coffee Break

3.45 – 5 p.m.: Expert Panel “Socio-Emotional Coupling in Human-AI Interactions” with Blaise Agüera y Arcas (Google), Kristina Lerman (Indiana University), Jonathan Simon (Université de Montréal) + Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

5 – 6 p.m.: Social Hour/Mixer

THURSDAY, MARCH 12th, 2026

9:30 – 10 a.m.: Welcome and Coffee

10 – 10:45 a.m.: TBA
Winnie Street (Google)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Human and AI Solution Paths in Formalizing Expert Mathematics
Bálint Gyevnár (Carnegie Mellon University),

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.:  Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1:45 – 2.30 p.m.:Feedback Loop Dynamics in Collective Reasoning under Algorithmic Mediation
Kristina Lerman (Indiana University)

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: From Predictive Pattern Completion to Social and Cultural Norms
Joel Leibo (Google DeepMind)

3.15 – 3.45 p.m. : Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.30 p.m.: From Single Models to Multi-Agent Systems and Their Risks
Nouha Dziri (Allen AI2)

4.30 – 5 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

FRIDAY, MARCH 13th, 2026

9:30 – 10 a.m.: Welcome and Coffee

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Beyond the “View from Nowhere”: Consciousness as a Relational and Functional Capacity
Philippe Beaudoin (LawZero)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: TBA
Winnie Street (Google)

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.:  Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1.45 – 2.30 p.m.: Personal Identity as Distributed Interpretive Cognition : How to Harmonize AI Safety and AI Welfare
Jonathan Simon (Université de Montréal)

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: The Social Structure of Scientific Evaluation: AI, Benchmarking, and the Deep Learning Monoculture
Bernard Koch (University of Chicago)

3.15 – 3.45 p.m.: Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.30 p.m.: Asymmetric Social Reward Dynamics in Human-AI Interaction and their Implications
Laura Globig (New York University)

4.30 – 5 p.m.:Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

5 – 5.10 p.m.: Closing Remarks