tbd/con

2026

the future of ai is tbd.
so is everything else.

a conference for people who have more questions than answers.

read the manifesto

ai is being built, broken, reported on, regulated, and resisted, often by people who never talk to each other. tbd/con is where those conversations happen. this is an interdisciplinary virtual gathering for researchers, hackers, journalists, policy people, and builders who believe the most important questions about ai are still wide open.

01

what's tbd

>

who ai actually serves

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what it does to information ecosystems

>

whether safety and openness can coexist

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how technologists, journalists, researchers, and hackers work together

>

what comes next

the sessions reflect that: talks that end with open questions. workshops where you build something and fail and learn from that. office hours where you argue with an expert. a midway where you wander into something you didn't expect.

02

verticals

thought

philosophy, ethics, and the long-term impact of synthetic agency on human cognition.

information

truth, propaganda, and the shifting architecture of digital public squares.

security

adversarial AI, breaking models, responsible disclosure, and the arms race between offense and defense.

practice

the mechanics of building: architectures, data curation, and engineering at scale.

garage

wild prototypes, failed experiments, and the weird stuff happening in the margins.

03

how it works

all virtual.

all on gather.town.

talks

unsolved theories

demos

raw prototypes

workshops

collaborative failure

panels

civil disagreement

office hours

expert critique

the midway

random encounters

when

late september 2026

exact date tbd.

where

gather.town

virtual campus. accessible anywhere.

access

sliding scale

tickets release q1 2026.

got a question worth 30 minutes?

we are looking for talks that end with open questions. technical depth, social critique, and wild prototypes welcome.

if you came here looking for certainty, you're in the wrong place.

04

the 2026 advisory board

the advisory board selects the tracks and shapes the discourse. we are looking for researchers, hackers, journalists, and critics. apply to join the 2026 council.