teleo-codex/domains/collective-intelligence/group-intentionality-formalizes-as-shared-generative-model-components.md

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

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Relevant Notes:

• collective intelligence is a measurable property of group interaction structure not aggregated individual ability

Topics:

• collective-intelligence/_map