Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence (DICE)
DICE aims to develop decentralized AI algorithms for scalable, resilient, and human-controlled collectives of diverse agents capable of long-term missions in challenging environments.
Funder: DARPA - Information Processing Technologies Office
Due Dates: June 30, 2026 (Abstracts) | August 18, 2026 (Questions) | August 25, 2026 (Full Proposals)
Funding Amounts: Multiple awards anticipated; 36-month program; specific award size not stated.
Summary: Supports research on decentralized multi-agent AI collectives for scalable, adaptive, and resilient autonomous systems under human control in contested environments.
Key Information: Abstract submission is strongly encouraged and required to use the provided template.
Description
This funding opportunity seeks innovative research proposals to develop the theory and algorithms for decentralized coordination and local inference control, enabling scalable, adaptive, and resilient collectives of heterogeneous AI agents. The goal is to create autonomous systems that can execute sustained, long-horizon missions in contested environments while remaining under human oversight and aligned with intended outcomes. The program emphasizes moving beyond brittle centralized orchestration or ad hoc agent compositions, focusing instead on self-organizing systems that maintain predictability and mission alignment. Research areas include AI, control theory, formal methods, and game theory, with three technical areas: peer-to-peer coordination, local inference control, and test/evaluation in simulation environments.
