Intent representation
Discover latent states that explain how a person’s goal evolves across a behavioral trajectory.
PROJECT ATLASACTIVE RESEARCH / 2026
MAPPING HUMAN INTENT THROUGH ADVERTISING
The action is
visible. The why
is not.
ATLAS asks whether sequential behavior can reveal the decision state beneath it—before the outcome is explicit.
Enter the study ↓OBSERVATIONAL ENVIRONMENTADVERTISING
ATLAS / 01SEQUENTIAL BEHAVIOR → INTENT
THE MISSING MIDDLE
AI can predict the
next action. ATLAS studies
the state before it.
Search, exploration, comparison, hesitation and commitment are visible. The intent and uncertainty driving them are not. ATLAS investigates whether those hidden decision states can be represented computationally.
TRAJECTORY STUDY / CONCEPTUAL INTERFACE
OBSERVATION ≠ UNDERSTANDINGOBSERVED SEQUENCESELECT A MOMENT
LATENT STATE / HYPOTHESIS
Resolving uncertainty
Alternatives are being weighed against a live constraint.
ATLAS DOES NOT ASSUMEAction = intent
The same visible move can come from very different decision states. This is the distinction under study.
RESEARCH, NOT PERSONAL PROFILINGCONTEXT + HISTORY→LATENT DECISION STATE→OBSERVED OUTCOME
CORE RESEARCH QUESTION
Can AI learn a
generalizable
representation of
human intent?
Not a fixed label attached to a person—a changing state that can account for what they see, reconsider and ultimately decide.
ACTIVE DIRECTIONS
ATLAS / 001—003↗
Decision dynamics
Model movement between exploration, comparison, uncertainty and commitment.
Information & intervention
Study how new information changes a decision state—and when an AI should stay out of the way.
WHY ADVERTISING?
Not the destination.
The observation deck.
Advertising creates repeated encounters between people, information, alternatives and decisions. That makes it a useful environment for studying how a decision changes after each new piece of information.
InformationAlternativesResponseContextIntent
in motion
in motion
RESEARCH BOUNDARY
Observe behavior.
Respect people.
ATLAS is a research program, not a personal profiling product. Any investigation must be grounded in consent, data governance, privacy-preserving methods and clear limits on what behavioral evidence can support.
Explore the lab’s other research ↗Interested in the research?
Talk to the ATLAS team. ↗