Ambhasi: A Consciousness x AI Research Residency at Edge City India

A two-week house for researchers, philosophers, engineers, and builders working where minds and machines meet.

Sep 22, 2026

This piece was originally written by CIMC (California Institute for Machine Consciousness). We're republishing it here for the Edge City India community.

Apply here to join the Ambhasi Residency. Remember to book your accommodation & buy tickets to Edge City India soon!

15 residents. 14 days. An open inquiry into mind and machine.

CIMC is partnering with Edge City to create Ambhasi, a two-week research residency in Goa, India, dedicated to consciousness, intelligence, and the possibility of experience in machines.

To bring this residency to life, we are looking for institutional partners and sponsors, while opening our call for residents to join us in investigating questions that no single discipline can resolve alone: Can a machine experience consciousness? How could we know? And what would that mean for humanity?

Located on the coast of Mandrem, Goa, Ambhasi combines the intimacy and deep focus of a small research group with the reach and serendipity of the broader Edge City pop-up village.

Dates: October 18 – November 1, 2026
Location: Mandrem, Goa, at Edge City India

A unique setting at the heart of a pop-up city

A focused research house inside a frontier ecosystem.

Edge City India allows Ambhasi to combine the depth and trust of a small residency with the infrastructure and connections of a much larger community.
Edge City brings together researchers, founders, engineers, funders, and creators across technology, science, and culture. Since 2023, its pop-up villages have convened more than 12,000 builders worldwide.
For Ambhasi residents, this means opportunities to meet people working on adjacent problems, explore potential applications, and introduce emerging research to collaborators and supporters beyond the house.

The two-week journey: From idea to execution

Ambhasi is a working house designed to build momentum. Our aim is for every resident to leave with a sharper research question, new collaborators, and tangible progress toward a paper, grant application, open-source prototype, or formal research proposal.

The program includes:

Set a direction: Day-one project briefs and goal-setting to identify what each resident wants to achieve.
Develop and test ideas: Protected deep-work blocks, curated readings, and resident-led workshops.
Work across disciplines: Sessions to challenge assumptions, compare methods, and develop shared research directions.
Connect with the ecosystem: Exchanges with CIMC mentors, partners, and Edge City collaborators.
Leave with a path forward: A closing clinic to identify milestones, resources, collaborators, and a concrete 90-day plan.

Two weeks will not settle consciousness. They can change what you work on next, and who you work with.

What we will explore

Residents will arrive with a live project or question and work through key themes including:

More capable and adaptive intelligence: Using models of attention, self-organization, and conscious processing to explore how AI can learn efficiently, coordinate, and maintain coherence.
Human–AI collaboration: Exploring how working with AI can strengthen human reflection, creativity, and collective intelligence while preserving agency.
Consciousness and its implementation: Investigating whether consciousness depends on biological substrate, computation, dynamic organization, or interactions within a system.
Fundamental scientific understanding: Connecting AI, neuroscience, cognitive science, complexity, and philosophy to address deep questions about perception and experience.

An existing network around consciousness

Edge City’s previous consciousness residency at Edge Esmeralda brought researchers, philosophers, and builders together for a month of shared investigation. Ambhasi builds on that foundation, connecting CIMC’s community with an existing network and creating opportunities for research to continue beyond Goa.

Apply as a resident

Bring a question you cannot leave alone, a project you want to advance, and a willingness to think beyond your own discipline. We welcome researchers, philosophers, and builders ready to contribute to a shared intellectual environment.

Apply to Ambhasi

Become a sponsor

Help create the conditions for ambitious, interdisciplinary research. Sponsor and send a fellow, or support the residency itself, helping make this opportunity possible and participating in its development.

Become a sponsor

Our home: अम्भसि

Our residency takes its name from Ambhasi, Sanskrit for “in the water.” Its philosophical inspiration comes from the Vedic tradition, particularly the Nāsadīya Sūkta, a hymn that contemplates existence, primordial waters, and the limits of knowledge. Its willingness to leave fundamental questions open speaks to the spirit of our inquiry: curiosity, intellectual humility, and the courage to question our assumptions.