QFI 2026: 1st Frontier Workshop on Quantum Foundations of Intelligence
QFI 2026 will be held in the Cross-AI Symposium 2026.
Introduction
Artificial intelligence has achieved remarkable progress, yet fundamental questions remain about representation, learning, reasoning, generalization, causality, computation, and intelligent agency. Most existing approaches are grounded in classical mathematics, probability, logic, and computation. Quantum information and computation provide distinct mathematical and computational frameworks that may open new ways to formulate and study these problems.
The Quantum Foundations of Intelligence (QFI) workshop explores quantum information and computation not merely as technologies for accelerating existing machine learning workloads, but as sources of new mathematical and algorithmic principles for intelligence. We are particularly interested in how concepts from quantum theory—including non-commutativity, contextuality, superposition, entanglement, measurement, quantum probability, and quantum processes—can inspire new theories, representations, algorithms, and principles of computation and intelligence. Contributions may be theoretical, mathematical, computational, or empirical, including approaches implemented entirely on classical hardware.
The workshop brings together AI and machine learning with quantum computing, quantum information, theoretical computer science, mathematics, logic, information theory, cognitive science, and philosophy of computation. We seek work that develops new quantum and quantum-inspired representations and learning paradigms; establishes connections between quantum computation and core problems in AI and computer science; explores quantum generative, cognitive, and multimodal models; identifies quantum computational advantages, expressivity, and fundamental limitations; or develops quantum approaches to reasoning, causality, decision-making, and intelligent agency.
Research may address language and multimodal intelligence, embodied and physical AI, autonomous systems, scientific discovery, cognitive modeling, and brain–computer interfaces, provided that the central contribution is grounded in quantum computational or informational principles.
Core Focus Tracks
- Quantum Foundations and Representations
Quantum probability, Hilbert-space representations, non-commutative structures, contextuality, entanglement, compositionality, and mathematical frameworks for intelligence. - Quantum Learning and Reasoning
Quantum learning theory, sample and query complexity, quantum inference, quantum logic, quantum kernels and models, generalization, reasoning, and neural-symbolic approaches. - Quantum Information, Computation, and Complexity
Quantum algorithms, information processing, communication, search, computational complexity, simulation, quantum advantage, and fundamental computational limits. - Quantum Causality and Decision-Making
Quantum causal models, quantum processes, interventions, indefinite causal order, counterfactual reasoning, decision theory, planning, and intelligent agency. - Quantum Generative and Cognitive Models
Quantum generative models, tensor-network approaches, language and multimodal representations, quantum-probabilistic models of cognition, perception, memory, and scientific discovery. - Expressivity, Advantage, and Limits of Quantum Intelligence
Formal classical–quantum learning separations, expressivity and universality, trainability and barren plateaus, quantum-inspired classical benchmarks, classical simulation and dequantization, and fundamental limits of quantum approaches to intelligence.
Important Dates (AoE)
| Milestone | Cross-AI Archival Paper Deadline | Non-Archival Paper Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Full/Short Paper Submission | October 26, 2026 | N/A |
| Poster/Demo Paper Submission | November 2, 2026 | November 16, 2026 |
| Abstract Submission | November 2, 2026 | November 16, 2026 |
| Acceptance Notification | November 16, 2026 | November 30, 2026 |
| Camera-Ready Submission | November 30, 2026 | N/A |
| Pre-Recorded Video Submission | November 30, 2026 | November 30, 2026 |
| Author Registration Deadline | December 2, 2026 | December 2, 2026 |
| Cross-AI Symposium 2026 | December 14-16, 2026 |
Archival work submissions for the Cross-AI Symposium must be submitted by the first deadline. Non-archival submissions may be submitted by either deadline.
Submission
All submissions are made through the AirBalloon conference management system and evaluated through a unified process.
1. Unpublished and Unreviewed Papers
Unpublished and unreviewed papers should follow the IEEE conference manuscript template (Overleaf or US Letter), be written in English, submitted as PDF files, and undergo double-blind review.
| Category | Length (including references) |
|---|---|
| Full paper | 8–10 pages |
| Short paper | 5–7 pages |
| Poster paper | 3–4 pages |
| Demo paper | 2–3 pages with a link to a 2-minute demo video |
| Extended Abstract | 1 page |
2. Reviewed but Not Yet Published Papers
For papers previously submitted to major AI/ML/NLP/Computer Vision/Robotics/Signal Processing/Graphics conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR, ECCV, AAAI, ICRA, IROS, CoRL, SIGGRAPH, ACM MM, ICASSP, HCI, KDD), please include the original reviews as supplementary material, clearly indicating the conference, along with a separate document summarizing the revisions addressing the reviewers’ comments. This may help expedite the review process.
3. Non-Archival Submissions
Non-archival submissions may include published journal or conference papers, as well as works in progress seeking feedback. All are welcome for presentation at Cross-AI events. For published papers, authors only need to submit an abstract and the original DOI link.
4. E-Posters and Demo Videos
Electronic posters and/or demo videos are optional for all submission types (Full, Short, Poster, Demo, and Non-Archival).
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| E-Poster | 1-page electronic poster (PDF) |
| Demo Video | up to 2-minute demo video |
5. Pre-Recorded Presentation Videos
Accepted submissions provide a pre-recorded video.
| Category | Presentation | Q&A |
|---|---|---|
| Full paper | 15 minutes | 3 minutes |
| Short paper | 10 minutes | 2 minutes |
| Poster | 6 minutes | 2 minutes |
| Demo | 5 minutes (system description + showcase) | 2 minutes |
| Abstract | 5 minutes | 2 minutes |
Publishing & Registration Requirements
All accepted archival papers will be published in the indexed Cross-AI conference proceedings. At least one author must register for the workshop. Authors may optionally have their papers considered for further publication in an IEEE-published Cross-AI Special Edition in 2027, subject to Cross-AI approval and an additional publication fee.
Media Hosting: Submitted presentation and demo videos, e-posters, audio, and other approved media will be hosted on the conference platform and made openly accessible for three years. Media hosting and open access are included in the Author registration fee.
Cross-AI Group
This group serves as a forum for notices and announcements of interest to the Cross-AI community. This includes news, events, calls for papers, calls for collaborations between academia and industry, dataset releases, employment-related announcements, etc.
Welcome to subscribe to the Cross-AI group.
If you are interested in serving on the workshop program committee or paper reviewing, please apply online.