Joscha Bach

He studied computer science and philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin and Waikato University in New Zealand and obtained his PhD from the Institute of Cognitive Science in Osnabrück; his interest lies in using AI as a tool to understand the mind, modeling motivation and affect in the cognitive architecture MicroPsi.⁠[1]

In 2008 he presented the paper “Seven Principles of Synthetic Intelligence” at the first Conference on Artificial General Intelligence in Memphis; in 2009 Oxford UniversityUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry Press published his monograph Principles of Synthetic Intelligence, subtitled “An architecture for motivated cognition.”⁠[2]

In 2012 he presented “MicroPsi 2: The Next Generation of the MicroPsi Framework” at the Fifth Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI 2012) in Oxford, UK, and that year also published a framework for emergent emotions based on motivation and cognitive modulators in the International Journal of Synthetic Emotions.⁠[3]

In 2013 he met Jeffrey Epstein, convicted in 2008, who introduced him to the MIT Media Lab; MIT’s 2020 investigative report found Epstein paid about $300,000 for his work there.⁠[4]

In the mid-2010s he worked as a cognitive scientist for the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, building computational models of motivated decision making, perception, categorization and concept formation; he also answered Edge.org’s annual questions, his 2016 response titled “Everything Is Computation.”⁠[5]

After AI research at Humboldt University, Waikato University, the University of Osnabrück, the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, he became VP of Research at the AI Foundation in San Francisco; he describes his interest as using AI as a lens to understand the human mind, with a focus on agency, autonomy and motivation.⁠[6]

On June 13, 2020, as VP of Research at the AI Foundation, he was the guest of episode 101 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, titled “Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality,” covering the hard problem of consciousness, mind versus reality, meta-learning and the role of emotion.⁠[7]

On August 21, 2021, he returned as the guest of episode 212, titled “Nature of Reality, Dreams, and Consciousness,” discussing consciousness, life, free will, the simulation hypothesis and GPT-3.⁠[8]

On August 1, 2023, he appeared a third time as the guest of episode 392, titled “Life, Intelligence, Consciousness, AI & the Future of Humans,” with topics including stages of life, identity, panpsychism, artificial consciousness and Eliezer YudkowskyEliezer YudkowskyEliezer Yudkowsky is an American AI researcher and writer who in 2000 founded the organization later renamed the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) and is regarded as an early founder of the field of AI alignment; he has long warned that superintelligence could cause human extinction and calls for a worldwide halt to large AI training runs, views that many researchers dispute.Open the full entry.⁠[9]

He worked at IntelIntelIntel is a semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1968; it introduced the 4004 microprocessor in 1971, its x86 processors have long powered personal computers, it has pursued a foundry strategy since 2021, and Lip-Bu Tan has been its chief executive officer since 2025.Open the full entry Labs, with research interests including cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling and multi-agent systems.⁠[10]

In 2024, as a speaker at the 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3), he was working at the AI startup Liquid AI and lived in California.⁠[11]

In June 2025 the California Institute for Machine Consciousness (CIMC) recapped its three-day launch, which included a conversation between him and Stephen Wolfram at the Internet Archive; the institute says its mission is to formulate testable theories of machine consciousness.⁠[12]

In November 2025 documents released by the US House Oversight Committee showed that in 2016 emails to Epstein he attributed Black children trailing intellectually to biological factors and claimed women tend to find abstract systems intrinsically boring. He said in a statement that he had relied on peer-reviewed research published in 2006 but that his views had changed and race is not a determinant of IQIQIQ is a blockchain project that grew out of the online encyclopedia Everipedia. It runs IQ.wiki, an encyclopedia of blockchain and crypto assets, and launched the IQ token in Seoul in 2018; in 2025, IQ and Frax launched KRWQ, a stablecoin pegged to the South Korean won.Open the full entry in children or adults; Liquid AI said his comments did not reflect its values and that it had ended its relationship with him.⁠[13]

Epstein files released by the US Justice Department in early 2026 indicated Epstein apparently gave him over $1 million in 2013–2019. He confirmed Epstein had enabled his research stay in the US but said his work was not influenced and he never knew of unlawful acts by Epstein after the conviction.⁠[4]

As of October 2026 he leads the California Institute for Machine Consciousness as a cognitive scientist and AI researcher focused on computational models of cognition.⁠[14]

Personal website: Public link: https://bach.ai/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]

X: Public account: https://x.com/Plinz (opens in a new window)⁠[9]