DARPA-SN-26-72.pdf

Special Notice Information Innovation Office

Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled

Emergence (DICE) Proposers Day

DARPA-SN-26-72

April 24, 2026

Opportunity Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence (DICE) Proposers Day

Event Hybrid Proposers Day

Event Date/Time May 29, 2026 at 09:00 AM ET

Event Physical Location Executive Conference Center 4075 Wilson Blvd Arlington, Virginia 22203

Fee to Attend There is NO fee to attend

Who can Attend This event is open to potential proposers only; not open to the public.

Registration Website https://events.sa-meetings.com/website/94863/

Registration Deadline May 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM (ET)

Non-U.S. Registration forms Deadline

May 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM (ET)

Administrative POC DICE@darpa.mil

DARPA Program Manager Susmit Jha

PROPOSERS DAY

The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency’s (DARPA) Information Innovation Office (I2O) is sponsoring an unclassified hybrid Proposers Day in support of an anticipated Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence (DICE) solicitation. The purpose of this event is to provide information on DICE technical goals and challenges, address questions from potential proposers, and provide an opportunity for potential proposers to consider how their research may align with the DICE program objectives. Attendance is voluntary and it is not required to propose to the DICE solicitation.

https://events.sa-meetings.com/website/94863/ mailto:DICE@darpa.mil

PROGRAM BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Future conflicts will unfold at machine speed in highly dynamic and contested environments. This will require autonomous, multi-agent artificial intelligence (AI) systems to create an asymmetric battlespace advantage and reduce risk to warfighters.

The DICE program seeks to develop the theory and algorithms for decentralized coordination and local inference control to enable a scalable, adaptive, and resilient collective of heterogeneous AI agents that can autonomously execute sustained long-time-horizon missions in contested environments while remaining under our control. In contrast to small-scale, rigid, and fragile centralized orchestration or the high-risk unpredictable nature of ad hoc compositions of AI agents, DICE aims to harness the scalability and adaptability of self-organizing systems while minimizing risks and ensuring that the collective behavior remains predictable and aligned with intended outcomes. This approach mirrors the principles of decentralized self-organization that underpin the internet's own scalability and resilience, where robust global behavior emerges from simple, local rules.

DICE aims to develop a decentralized AI architecture suitable for rapidly evolving, unpredictable, and contested environments. With this architecture, AI agents can dynamically form teams using peer-to-peer coordination to execute complex missions. This coordination will be robust to failure or compromise of individual agents, as well as to “rogue” AI agents that might develop misaligned instrumental goals. The local inference control on each AI agent will ensure role coherence of individual agents and constrain the emergent behavior of the collective to maintain alignment with commander’s intent over the long term, even across multiple inference steps. DICE will seek to expand and leverage the theory of self-organizing systems and distributed consensus algorithms, together with recent breakthroughs in controlling the internal reasoning and inference of AI foundation models at inference-time.

DICE aims to advance AI beyond individual agent capabilities by fostering system-level capability that emerges from the interactions between agents. This controlled emergence ensures DICE AI agents remain on mission, maintain doctrine, suppress misbehaviors, and remain resilient to agent loss or compromise.

The program’s scope does not include the development and deployment of autonomous systems in the real world. The program will use simulation environments to demonstrate DICE architectures in Department of War-relevant use-cases, targeting measurable gains in scalability, adaptability, and resilience against both benign failures and adversarial attacks.

If a solicitation is published, it will be available at https://SAM.gov/.

https://sam.gov/

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

The DICE Proposers Day will be held on May 29, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET in-person at the Executive Conference Center, located at 4075 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia, 22203 and virtually via Zoom. No more than three representatives per organization unit, and five people per overall organization, may attend this Proposers Day. Registrants are strongly encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration.

Any non-U.S. citizen must complete and submit one of the following:

• DARPA Form 60; or

• Foreign government personnel must submit an Official Visit Request completed by their respective

Embassy based in Washington, DC.

All non-U.S. forms must be submitted no later than 5:00 PM ET on May 19, 2026. Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email. Foreign government personnel should contact their respective Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request. All non-U.S. personnel must present a valid passport or Permanent Resident Card.

IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION

Registration for in-person attendance must be completed no later than 5:00 PM ET on May 19, 2026.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis with a limit of 136 participants. Any United States (U.S.)

citizen seeking to attend the Proposers Day in-person will be required to present a valid, Government-issued photo identification at the registration table prior to admittance into the event.

Late in-person registrations may be admitted after all pre-registered attendees are admitted, and only if room capacity allows. Please note, in-person check-in begins at 8:00 AM ET; late in-person registration requires significant coordination and may not be complete in time to gain physical entrance into the Proposers Day event.

VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION

Registration for virtual attendance must be completed no later than 5:00 PM ET on May 19, 2026. All virtual attendees are required to log in using their first and last name. Participants calling in must call from the number provided during registration.

EVENT FORMAT

The DICE Proposers Day will include overview presentations by the DARPA Program Manager, Susmit Jha, and DARPA support offices; a Question & Answer (Q&A) session; and will conclude with an opportunity for individual sidebar sessions with the PM.

PM sidebar sessions will be 10 minutes and require advanced sign-up at the time of registration. Sidebars are limited to in-person attendees only.

Following the Proposers Day, please visit Sam.gov or the DICE program page at: http://darpa.mil/ for additional program information.

http://darpa.mil/

ATTENDEE TEAMING

To assist those wanting to establish collaborative teaming efforts and business relationships, potential proposers may indicate on the registration website that they authorize their contact information to be shared among meeting participants. For persons or organizations new to DARPA, this may be of use in connecting with potential partners. The DICE team anticipates potential proposers will have the opportunity to conduct informal teaming discussions in person and virtually during and after the event.

The DICE team may provide informal communication channels to assist in teaming discussions during and after the event. Potential proposers are strongly encouraged not to rely solely on this event or potential government communication channels to form teaming relationships.

DARPACONNECT

DARPAConnect offers free resources to potential performers to help them navigate DARPA, including “Understanding DARPA Award Vehicles and Solicitations,” “Making the Most of Proposers Days,” and “Tips for DARPA Proposal Success.” Join DARPAConnect at www.DARPAConnect.us to leverage on-demand learning and networking resources.

NOTE: This Special Notice does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals. This notice is issued solely for information and program planning purposes and is not a Request for Information (RFI). DARPA will not accept any submissions against this notice. Interested parties to this notice are cautioned that nothing herein obligates DARPA to issue a solicitation.

NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ANY COMMUNICATIONS IN

RESPONSE TO THIS SPECIAL NOTICE.

http://www.darpaconnect.us/