rico chandra

AI agents can code, browse, and increasingly act in the physical world. What they can't do is securely coordinate with each other. We just launched Scaling Trust, a £50m @ARIA_research programme to build that missing layer. Funding now open! Link below

People seem to be arriving at a similar conclusion from various angles: - AGI may not emerge as a monolith, but as a distributed "patchwork" system of coordinating sub-AGI agents [1] - Static benchmarks aren't enough; we need multi-agent ones to capture emergent risks and capabilities [2] - As creation costs go to zero, human verification bandwidth becomes the ultimate economic bottleneck, making verification infrastructure one of the most important public goods for the AI era [3] - Automated proof-generation and verification can act as the unlock for this bottleneck [4] - New kinds of strategic interactions between agents are emerging, reaching cooperative "program equilibria" inaccessible in traditional settings [5] - Coasean transaction costs are about to collapse, changing our society [6] There is an elephant here that we're all touching. Our @ARIA_research initial £50m r&d programme Scaling Trust is our unifying thesis, on the trust infrastructure needed for an agentic world and how to steer us there. Before we set out on our journey over the next ~3ish years, we're hiring an additional individual to complete our team. Your role will essentially be one of Technical Director, steering our efforts technically and co-owning our research and engineering agenda. You will be doing incredibly meaningful work, in a highly interdisciplinary environment, and at the cutting edge of a technology that is shaping up to be the most defining of our century, if not of humanity. We are building for the highest possible impact. After all, this is what @ARIA_research is about, moonshot r&d projects that change the world. We want to build technology as impactful as the invention of the internet once was in another r&d programme at DARPA, to start new academic fields and academic lineages for the next century, and to catalyze lasting positive change for the world. For the right person, this is a bat signal 🦇, few places will offer you as much leverage to effect positive change on the world, intellectual stimulation, and fun. Join us! We want to onboard someone asap as we build out our initial portfolio, and are willing to move fast. Apply here: aria.pinpointhq.com/en/postings/1a… Any questions on the role, please shoot me a DM or reply in comment here! --- [1] Distributional AGI Safety @weballergy @sebkrier @FranklinMatija et. al -- arxiv.org/abs/2512.16856 [2] Agents of Chaos @NatalieShapira et. al — arxiv.org/abs/2602.20021 [3] Some Simple Economics of AGI @ccatalini et. al — arxiv.org/abs/2602.20946 [4] When AI Writes the World's Software, Who Verifies It? @Leonard41111588 — leodemoura.github.io/blog/2026/02/2… [5] Evaluating LLMs in Open-Source Games @SwadeshSistla et. al — arxiv.org/abs/2512.00371 [6] Coasean Bargaining at Scale @sebkrier — blog.cosmos-institute.org/p/coasean-barg…

The search for ARIA’s next cohort of Programme Directors has begun 🚀 As an ARIA PD, you will design and actively manage a ~£50M R&D programme within or around our opportunity spaces with the goal of unlocking scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. There is no one way to be an ARIA PD – our existing cohorts come from a range of backgrounds, including academia, entrepreneurship, invention and industry, and have launched programmes in areas ranging from synthetic plants to multi-agent coordination to brain surgery-free neurotechnologies. Full applications will open in August 2026 for a May 2027 start date – over the coming months we’ll be running webinars and in-person events across the UK, Europe, the US and Asia where you’ll get the chance to engage directly with the ARIA team and learn more about the opportunity. Find out more about what it means to be a PD and register your interest to be the first to receive updates on the recruitment process: link.aria.org.uk/pdc3-x

Could you help unlock a digital infrastructure layer between the Earth and space? Full proposals are open for our £50m-backed Enduring Atmospheric Platforms programme – where we’re aiming to develop persistent, low-cost atmospheric platforms capable of meeting the demands of the burgeoning global telecommunications industry. From lighter than air vehicles to aircraft exploiting unconventional approaches to remain aloft, we’re open to pursuing a range of pathways. Our funding spans three areas: - Enabling Technologies - System Integration + Testing - Deployment + Communications Architecture Apply for funding by 2 April: link.aria.org.uk/EAP-programme-x

“A British bet worth watching." @EvanHD explores the economics of our mission on @BBCRadio4 – roughly £5 per citizen to de-risk science with the potential to catalyse new trillion-pound industries. Listen to it here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…