Contents

• A PROGRAM ABOUT WHAT COMES NEXT
• TAUGHT LIVE BY THE FIELD’S FOUNDERS
• PROGRAM ESSENTIALS
• JOIN A LIVE INFO SESSION

The California Institute for Human Science has launched the first accredited graduate program dedicated specifically to artificial general intelligence, taught live by the researchers who founded the field.

AGI became an academic discipline this week.

The California Institute for Human Science (CIHS) has launched its Master of Science in Artificial General Intelligence, the first accredited graduate program dedicated specifically to AGI. The faculty includes Dr. Ben Goertzel, who launched the term and concept of “artificial general intelligence” and founded SingularityNET, the ASI Alliance, and the Hyperon AGI project.

For this community, that’s a milestone worth sitting with. The questions we’ve spent years working on, what intelligence is, how to build it, and what it means for humanity once we do, now have an accredited graduate degree built around them. And the people teaching it are the people who built the field.

A PROGRAM ABOUT WHAT COMES NEXT

Most AI graduate programs train you on today’s tools and applications. This one is built around the questions that come next: the scientific, engineering, ethical, and civilizational challenges of general intelligence itself.

The program treats AGI as a field of study in its own right, with open technical questions and a long-running research history, rather than a specialization tucked inside a broader computer science degree.

“During these unprecedented times in which AGI is rapidly transitioning from theory into practice and deployment, the need has never been greater for a new breed of AGI professional, conversant in a variety of technical AI paradigms and their underlying scientific foundations, and also in the intersections of AGI with broader issues of consciousness, ethics and society,” said Goertzel. “It has been an absolute pleasure to collaborate with Gabriel Axel and the folks at CIHS on creating the world’s first AGI degree programme, oriented toward fostering the careers of this new generation of AGI scientists. We need to work toward a beneficial future together with our diverse AGI creations.”

TAUGHT LIVE BY THE FIELD’S FOUNDERS

The format is the other departure. Classes are live, faculty-led video sessions, and the inaugural cohort is small by design, working directly with the faculty instead of watching a pre-recorded course library.

Alongside Goertzel, the founding faculty includes Dr. Matthew Iklé and Dr. Gabriel Axel Montes, the program’s Chair and Program Director, with guest lectures from the SingularityNET AI research team. More faculty will be announced.

“CIHS was built for exactly this kind of frontier question,” said Dr. Timothy Laporte, Interim President of CIHS. “AGI may be one of the most consequential developments of our time, and it cannot be understood through technical tools alone. It asks what intelligence is, how consciousness relates to mind and technology, and how transformative knowledge can serve humanity. This program brings founding researchers in AGI together with students who are ready to help shape what comes next.”

CIHS is a nonprofit graduate university and research center in Encinitas, California, founded in 1992 and institutionally accredited by the WSCUC Senior College and University Commission, the same accreditor as Stanford and Caltech.

PROGRAM ESSENTIALS

• Format: 100% online, live video classes (Pacific Time), quarter system
• Admissions: no GRE; applications include transcripts, two letters of recommendation, an essay, and a writing sample, reviewed on a rolling basis as they arrive
• First cohort: priority deadline July 31, 2026; final deadline August 31, 2026; the quarter begins September 28, 2026
• Eligibility: open to students in 31 approved U.S. states and worldwide internationally; the program is not available in all U.S. states, so prospective students should confirm eligibility with CIHS
• Tuition: published at cihs.edu/tuition-fees

The program is CIHS’s own. Applications, admissions, and enrollment all run directly through CIHS.

JOIN A LIVE INFO SESSION

CIHS is hosting two live info sessions with Ben Goertzel and Gabriel Axel Montes:

• Session A: Friday, July 24, 2026 at 10:30am PT
• Session B: Thursday, August 13, 2026 at 5pm PT

Each session runs 45 minutes: about 25 on the program, curriculum, and application process, then roughly 20 of open Q&A. Register on the official CIHS signup page. 

If you’ve followed this ecosystem for any length of time, you already know the questions this program is built around. Now there’s a classroom where they’re the entire curriculum.

Applications are open and reviewed as they arrive: 

SIGN UP TODAY!