The TrustworthyAI Lab @ ALife 2026

Zahra Atf, Nathan Lloyd, John Mills, Somto Mbele, Stavros Anagnou, Joelma Peixoto, Peter R. Lewis
Aug 21, 2026 2 min read
A selection of photos from the conference

This week, the Trustworthy AI Lab traveled to Waterloo for the Artificial Life Conference.

Kicking off the week, Stavros and Nathan co-organized the 3rd ALife in Organizations Workshop, there Peter gave an invited talk Reimagining Digital Public Spaces and Artificial Intelligence for Deep Cooperation.

Throughout the week Zahra presented many works:

  1. Expectation-Driven Protocell Agents: A Minimal Stochastic Model of Adaptive Behaviour in Chemical Artificial Life in The Sixth Workshop on Chemistry and Artificial Life Forms
  2. From Simulation to Interpretation: A Hermeneutic Account of Life-Likeness in LifeDef2026 Workshop
  3. Self-Other Differentiation, Boundary Maintenance, and Identity Continuity in LLM Agents: An Autopoiesis-Inspired Study in In Autopoiesis, Self & Other: Modeling Autonomy, Boundaries, and Life(-like) & Mind(-like) Interactions in Artificial Life
  4. When an Explanation Boundary Adapts: Structural Coupling and Interactional Viability in Edge AI in In Autopoiesis, Self & Other: Modeling Autonomy, Boundaries, and Life(-like) & Mind(-like) Interactions in Artificial Life
  5. Plus two posters: From Uncertainty to Apparent Conviction: Epistemic Dynamics in Artificial Conversational Agents and From Coordination to Correction: Proto-Normative Feedback in LLM Agent Societies

Peter chaired the ALife Art Exhibit Panel and Nathan presented Self-Fulfilling Expectations in Evolutionary Games as a late breaking abstract.

At the conference, John and Nathan volunteered across sessions, Somto, along with Maria, manned the Mindful AI Research Institute’s booth, Joelma was the Workshop chair, Nathan the Social Chair, John the Web Chair, and Peter the Co-General Chair so a huge thank you all around!