Talks, interviews, and press featuring Alyssa M Adams

Ghosts in a Shell

Cross Labs · 2023

Short Cross Labs video demonstrating the piece on camera, with its live AI “experience” effects running over the footage.

Ghosts in a Shell: An Immersive Art Experience

ALIFE 2023 · Sapporo · 2023

Presenting the wearable AR installation, which renders what a transformer model pays attention to, created with Oneris Rico, Nicholas Guttenberg, and Olaf Witkowski.

What Cellular Automata Tell Us About Life

ASCAT 2023 · Cellular Automata India · 2023

Morning session, day three. What the simplest rule-based universes reveal about the living kind.

Two Ways of Understanding Social Dynamics: Analyzing the Predictability of Emergent Objects in Reddit r/place Dependent on Locality in Space and Time

ABMHuB’22 · ALIFE 2022 · Online · 2022

With Javier Fernandez and Olaf Witkowski. How predictable are the objects that emerge on Reddit’s r/place canvas? The talk starts about three minutes in.

Workshop page

Interpretability of Network Measures in Host–Virus Protein Interactions

ISMB 2022 · NetBio · 2022

Recorded poster talk from the Morgridge Institute postdoc years.

Using Math to Understand and Define Life

iBiology · Share Your Research · 2021

A 23-minute introduction to open-ended evolution and the mathematical models behind how living systems keep innovating in a changing world.

Audio version on iBiology

Emergence: The Force Behind Open-Endedness

Cross Roads #28 · Cross Labs · 2021

Featured speaker in the Cross Labs monthly series, on how innovation and emergence arise from interacting objects, and a mathematical path toward open-endedness.

A Graph-Theoretic Approach to Understanding Emergent Behavior in Physical Systems

ALIFE 2021 · 2021

Recorded talk from the 2021 Conference on Artificial Life. Winner of an ALIFE 2021 Best Talk Award.

League of Legends: The Famous Open-Ended Strategy Generator

SEDS Celestia · BITS Pilani Goa · 2021

How a competitive online game can reveal general mechanisms of open-ended evolution.

The Role of Emergence in Open-Ended Systems

AUTOMATA 2020 · 2020

Invited talk at the International Workshop on Cellular Automata and Discrete Complex Systems.

Data Science with PyCharm

PyData Madison · UW–Madison · 2020

Speaker at the second PyData Madison meetup, which Alyssa co-organized.

Meetup page

Algorithmic Information Dynamics: Teaching Demos

Complexity Explorer · Santa Fe Institute · 2018

Teaching-assistant walkthroughs for Hector Zenil and Narsis Kiani’s online course, starting with cellular automata in the Wolfram Language.

Constructing Networks · Networks from Real Data (League of Legends)

Possible Open-Ended Strategy Selection in League of Legends

OEE3 Workshop · ALIFE 2018 · Tokyo · 2018

Short poster presentation at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution.

Session discussion with David Ackley, Alastair Channon, and Norman Packard

From Turing to Turtles: A Theory of Biological Computation

AbGradCon 2016 · CU Boulder · 2016

An early talk from the ASU PhD years at the Astrobiology Graduate Conference: is life something we can compute?

Update Chat: Dr. Alyssa Adams

Last Monkey Standing · 2025

On the upcoming ALIFE conference, current research, and what is next at Cross Labs.

Update Chat with Matthew Andrews and Tom Barbalet

Last Monkey Standing · 2025

The longer, three-way version of the same conversation.

The Next Ten Years, Embodiment, Japan, and Finding the Right Place

Last Monkey Standing · Tom Barbalet · 2024

A wide-ranging conversation on artificial life, embodiment, and building a research life in Japan.

Celestia On-Air Ep. 07: In Conversation with Alyssa Adams

SEDS Celestia · Pride Special · 2021

Identity, science, inclusivity in STEM, and a little League of Legends.

Audio on Spotify

Under Story

Chloe Benjamin · G.P. Putnam’s Sons · 2026

Science consultant for the novel. Credited in the acknowledgements.

The Astonishing Unknowable Universe

On Wisconsin Magazine · Maggie Ginsberg · 2026

On Chloe Benjamin’s research for Under Story, with Alyssa as her science research assistant since 2022: “the most fun job I’ve ever had.”

興味のある研究テーマは、生物進化のための数学を見つけること

Cross Compass · note · 2025 · in Japanese

Interview on finding the mathematics of biological evolution, why Alyssa moved to Japan, and where the research goes next.

ALIFE 2025 Preface

MIT Press · ISAL Proceedings · 2025

Preface to the Kyoto conference proceedings, with co-editors Olaf Witkowski, Lana Sinapayen, Manuel Baltieri, and Mahdi Khosravy.

Companion piece: Ciphers of Life: ALIFE 2025 Editors’ Note

The American Brain Drain Has Arrived. Just Ask These Scientists.

Business Insider · 2025

Interviewed on moving from the US to Japan full-time, and the wave of US researchers applying to Alyssa’s lab in Japan.

Free copy on Yahoo News

Elected to the ISAL Board of Directors

International Society for Artificial Life · 2024

Results of the 2023 board elections.

Ghosts in a Shell

Cross Labs Blog · 2023

With Oneris Rico, Nicholas Guttenberg, and Olaf Witkowski. The essay behind the installation: technology as a shell, and seeing through an AI’s attention.

Active Inference and Subjective Open-Endedness

Cross Labs Blog · 2023

With Nicholas Guttenberg and Lisa Soros. Published alongside Subjective Open-Endedness, approaching the same question through active inference.

Subjective Open-Endedness

Cross Labs Blog · 2023

With Nicholas Guttenberg, Lisa Soros, and Olaf Witkowski. Whether open-endedness is in the system or in the eye of the observer.

What is Creativity Anyways?

Cross Labs Blog · 2023

A personal essay on creative machines, starting from an experimental program on the family’s first computer. Written ahead of the Creativity Unleashed workshop.

Is AI Extending the Mind? A Summary

Cross Labs Blog · 2022

A recap of the second annual Cross Labs workshop.

Time to SHINE: UW, Morgridge Spinoff Has Great Hopes for Fusion’s Future

Morgridge Institute for Research · SPARK · 2022

A feature on SHINE, the Janesville fusion and medical-isotope company that grew out of Morgridge and UW–Madison.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? A Guide to Computing Complex Systems

FQXi Essay Contest · 2020

The case for modularity as an underused tool for modelling hard-to-predict systems, from stock markets to evolution.

Essay PDF

VEDA Data Solutions Launches VEDA Labs and a Healthcare Data Fellowship

Technical.ly · 2018

Quoted on VEDA Labs as a scientific response to the world’s data revolution.

Oh My Gosh, It’s Covered in Rule 30s!

Stephen Wolfram Writings · 2017

Stephen Wolfram on the Rule 30 facade of Cambridge North station, with photos credited to Wolfram Summer School alum Alyssa Adams.

Hands-on Tutorial on Brain–Computer Interfaces

ALIFE 2026 · Waterloo · Co-organizer · 2026

With Bruno Senzio-Savino Barzellato, Mahdi Khosravy, and Olaf Witkowski: how neural signals can be integrated into adaptive, evolving systems.

ALIFE 2025: Ciphers of Life

Kyoto · Vice Chair · 2025

The Cross Labs team’s invitation to the Conference on Artificial Life. Alyssa opened the conference and gave a thank-you speech at its close. Organizing committee · Opening ceremony · Closing ceremony · Session recordings

Cross Labs ALife Summer School (CLASS) 2025

Cross Labs · Kyoto · Organizer · 2025

A four-week introduction to ALife research for secondary-school students in Kyoto, ending in posters at ALIFE 2025.

New Human Interfaces: Keynote Speakers & Discussions

Cross Labs Workshop · Organizer · 2025

Fifth annual Cross Labs workshop, organized with Olaf Witkowski, Antoine Pasquali, and Katsunobu Suzuki. Keynote Panel & Discussion #2 · Event page

After Babel: The Quest for Universal Communication

Cross Labs Workshop · Online · Organizer · 2024

Fourth annual Cross Labs workshop, on communication across humans, animals, cells, machines, and aliens. Alyssa moderated two of its panels. Recordings

How to Use Your PhD for a Career That You Love

OoLEN Virtual Meeting · Invited Speaker · 2023

Without having to worry about becoming a professor.

7th Workshop of Artificial Life Japan

JSAI SIG-ALIFE · Cross Labs, Kyoto · Member · 2023

A hybrid research meeting for feedback on work headed to ALIFE 2024, held on site at Cross Labs.

ISAL Summer School 2023

ALIFE 2023 · Sapporo · Co-organizer · 2023

Co-organized with Olaf Witkowski and Jitka Čejková, with a series of recorded guest talks. Video series

Unconscious Relationship: ALIFE 2023 Art Exhibition

ALIFE 2023 · Sapporo · Exhibitor · 2023

Catalogue entry for Ghosts in a Shell among the thirteen exhibited works.

Creativity Unleashed: What Creative Technologies Would, Could, and Shouldn’t Be

Cross Labs Workshop · Online · Organizer · 2023

Third annual Cross Labs workshop. Alyssa chaired two sessions and joined the human roundtable. Recordings

Life As We Don’t Know It

Kohler Fellows · Overture Center, Madison · Participating Scientist · 2022

One of six scientists paired with artists to imagine life as we don’t know it. Exhibited May–August 2022.

Guided Informational Interviews: Data Science

Free the PhD Career Design Summit · Panelist · 2020

Panel with David Nicholson and Jesse Wood.

PyData Madison

Madison, WI · Co-organizer · 2020

Co-organized the city’s PyData meetup from its first session in January 2020. Recordings