UC San Diego Launches Center for Principled Agentic Intelligence

Oct. 28, 2026 — As artificial intelligence (AI) systems learn to reason, plan and carry out complex tasks with limited human direction, the University of California San Diego is launching a new interdisciplinary center focused on how humans can understand, evaluate and trust these AI ‘agents.’

The Center for Principled Agentic Intelligence (CPAi) is a partnership between the UC San Diego Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing and the School of Arts and Humanities . Bringing together researchers across data and computer science, high-performance computing, arts and humanities, the center will study the broader questions advanced AI systems raise about human values, oversight and accountability — and determine when trust in them is warranted.

The center will organize its work around three principles: Alignment, trust and responsibility. Alignment asks whether an AI system behaves as its developers and users intend. Trust requires verifiable evidence that systems perform reliably. Responsibility addresses the accountability of the people and organizations that build and deploy AI systems and the effects those systems have on society.