<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-cd847a33-7fff-7fda-4ef2-5419d07e0363"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Dear colleagues,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">We announce the 2023 challenge sponsored by </span><a href="http://algonauts.csail.mit.edu/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Algonauts Project</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">: </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">How the Human Brain Makes Sense of Natural Scenes.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> We invite you to join us in a competition to develop the best computer model of how the human brain responds to natural scenes. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Participants whose models most closely match recorded brain data (top 3) will receive monetary prizes and  be invited to present their work on Aug. 24th at this year’s </span><a href="https://ccneuro.org/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN).</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Submission deadline: July 26, 2023</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Algonauts Project: </span><a href="http://algonauts.csail.mit.edu/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(26,115,232);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">http://algonauts.csail.mit.edu/</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">CCN Workshop: </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">How the Human Brain Makes Sense of Natural Scenes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Aug. 24, 2023</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Organizers will summarize the outcome and provide hands-on tutorials.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Challenge winners are invited to present the results of their work.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Panel discussion about challenges in NeuroAI.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">We look forward to seeing you at the workshop in August, and we hope you will consider joining the challenge!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Best wishes,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Algonauts Project Team</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Algonauts 2023 Project Team:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Radoslaw Cichy, Freie Universität Berlin</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Kendrick Kay, University of Minnesota</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Aude Oliva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Gemma Roig, Goethe University Frankfurt</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Alessandro Gifford, Freie Universität Berlin</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Benjamin Lahner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Alex Lascelles, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Sari Saba-Sadiya, Goethe University Frankfurt & FIAS</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:10pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;color:rgb(33,33,33);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Martina Vilas, Goethe University Frankfurt & ESI</span></p></span></div>