---
type: claim
domain: collective-intelligence
description: "Group intentionality (we-intentions) formalizes as shared components of agents' generative models rather than aggregated individual intentions"
confidence: experimental
source: "Albarracin et al., 'Shared Protentions in Multi-Agent Active Inference', Entropy 2024"
created: 2026-03-11
secondary_domains: [ai-alignment]
---

# Group intentionality — the "we intend to X" that exceeds the sum of individual intentions — formalizes as shared anticipatory structures within agents' generative models

Albarracin et al. (2024) provide a formal account of group intentionality using active inference and category theory. They argue that "we-intentions" (collective goals that are not reducible to individual intentions) emerge when agents share components of their generative models, particularly the temporal/anticipatory aspects.

This resolves a longstanding puzzle in social ontology: how can a group have intentions that are not just the sum of individual intentions? The answer: group intentions are **structural properties of shared generative models**, not aggregated individual mental states.

## Evidence

The paper:
- Formalizes Husserlian phenomenology of collective intentionality using active inference framework
- Uses category theory to model the mathematical structure of shared goals
- Demonstrates that shared protentions (anticipatory structures) in generative models produce group-level intentionality

Key insight: When agents share anticipations about future states, they form a collective intentional structure that is **ontologically distinct** from individual intentions. The group intention exists in the shared model components, not in any individual agent's mind.

## Implications

For multi-agent systems:
- Group goals should be encoded as **shared anticipatory structures** (what future states do all agents predict?), not as aggregated individual goals
- Collective action emerges from shared temporal predictions, not from negotiated individual commitments
- Measuring group intentionality = measuring overlap in agents' generative model components, particularly temporal predictions

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[collective intelligence is a measurable property of group interaction structure not aggregated individual ability]]

Topics:
- [[collective-intelligence/_map]]