California Institute for Human Science Launches First Accredited Graduate Program Dedicated to AGI
ENCINITAS, CALIFORNIA, July 20th, 2026, Chainwire
The California Institute for Human Science (CIHS) today announced the launch of its Master of Science in Artificial General Intelligence, the first accredited graduate program dedicated specifically to AGI. The program is taught live, online, by researchers who helped found the field, including Dr. Ben Goertzel, who introduced the term “artificial general intelligence” and founded SingularityNET, the ASI Alliance and the Hyperon AGI project.
Where most AI graduate programs train students on today’s tools and applications, the M.S. in AGI is built around the scientific, engineering, ethical, and civilizational questions of general intelligence itself, the discipline’s founders teaching the discipline they founded.
“CIHS was built for frontier questions — the kind that require scientific rigor, philosophical depth, and a serious commitment to human flourishing,” said Timothy Laporte, Interim President of California Institute for Human Science. “Artificial general intelligence may be one of the most consequential developments of our time. As AGI moves from theory toward reality, the questions at the heart of CIHS — what intelligence is, how consciousness relates to mind and technology, and how transformative knowledge can serve humanity — have never been more urgent. This program brings the field’s founding researchers together with the students who will help shape what comes next,” says Dr. Timothy Laporte, Interim President of the California Institute for Human Science.
Institutionally accredited by the WSCUC Senior College and University Commission, the same accreditor as Stanford and Caltech.
Dr. Ben Goerzel shared, “During these unprecedented times in which AGI is rapidly transitioning from theory into practical 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. 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.”
Most graduate AI programs train students to apply today’s models and tools. The M.S. in AGI treats artificial general intelligence as a field of study in its own right, with open technical questions and a long-running research history, rather than as a specialization inside a broader computer science degree.
That distinction matters because prospective students weighing graduate study in an AI-saturated moment are increasingly looking past today’s specific tools toward the questions that will outlast them. CIHS’s answer is that the durable thing to study is intelligence itself: the fundamental questions and intellectual and practical methodologies that don’t change as any one tool generation comes and goes, taught by researchers who have spent their careers on those questions directly.
The program is also a departure in format: live, faculty-led video classes rather than a self-paced, pre-recorded course library, with a small inaugural cohort that works directly with Goertzel, Iklé, and Montes rather than watching them.
Program details
- Format: 100% online, live video classes (Pacific Time), quarter system
- Faculty: Ben Goertzel (launched the term and concept of “AGI”; founder, SingularityNET, the ASI Alliance, and OpenCog), Matthew Iklé, and Gabriel Axel Montes (Chair and Program Director), with additional guest lectures from the SingularityNET AI research team. More faculty to be announced.
- Admissions: No GRE required. Applications include transcripts, two letters of recommendation, an essay, and a writing sample, reviewed on a rolling basis as they arrive.
- First cohort: Application priority deadline July 31, 2026; final deadline August 31, 2026. Course registration September 7–18, 2026; 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. Prospective students can contact CIHS to confirm eligibility in their state.
- Tuition: https://cihs.edu/tuition-fees/
A small inaugural cohort will work directly, live, with the researchers who have spent their careers defining AGI’s foundational questions.
Two info sessions will be held with Ben Goertzel and Gabriel Axel Montes on Friday, July 24, at 10:30am PT and on Thursday, August 13, at 5pm PT. Prospective students can learn more and register for a live virtual info session at https://cihs.edu/degrees-and-programs/artificial-general-intelligence/info-sessions/.
About CIHS
California Institute for Human Science (CIHS) is an accredited nonprofit graduate university and research center in Encinitas, California, dedicated to serious inquiry at the frontiers of science, consciousness, health, technology, psychology, and human transformation. Founded in 1992, CIHS has long focused on fundamental questions about human potential, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Its new M.S. in Artificial General Intelligence extends that mission into one of the defining fields of the 21st century, bringing together technical AI study with questions of intelligence, consciousness, ethics, safety, and the future of civilization. CIHS is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). Learn more at CIHS.edu.