It's On: The 2026 ARC-AGI Prize Is Part Of Vanguard AI Research

The 2026 ARC-AGI Prize launched in March, with applications due November 8 for entrants submitting designs. The prize is rooted in the measurement work associated with Francois Chollet and others focused on how to evaluate AGI. ARC-AGI’s published methodology emphasizes “fluid intelligence”—reasoning, solving novel problems, and adapting—rather than “crystallized intelligence,” which it says would advantage systems benefiting from accumulated cultural or learned facts. The approach also leans on ideas tied to Elizabeth Spelke’s core knowledge theory, describing early, minimal-instruction “building blocks” for domains like objects, numbers, agents, geometry, and social partners.