Unfolding Intelligences
Fri 13 – Sun 15 November 2026A château in the Czech Highlands20 places
A writing retreat where up to 20 professionals reflect, write and build speculative, human-centred futures of work with AI.
- Dates
- 13–15 Nov 2026
- Place
- Hostačov, Skryje
- From Prague
- ~70 min
- Places
- 20
Unfolding
Intelligences
This weekend we think and plant the seed for us to imagine and write about hopeful futures of work instead of waiting for them. You bring what you see AI doing in your organisation and your community; we bring philosophy, the social sciences and time to think. Together we imagine, and put on paper, futures of work that hold on to human meaning, purpose and agency.
Our guiding principles for the three days- 01Be present
- 02Be mindful
- 03Be generous
- 04Go deep
Structured enough to go somewhere, open enough to surprise you.
Over the weekendThree days
to think
and write
Arrive
- Arrivals through the afternoon
- Settle in, walk the grounds
- Opening circle
- First dinner at the long table
Unfold
- Walking meditation
- Talks on the futures of work
- Writing sessions
- Music in the forest
Gather
- Morning yoga
- Last writing session
- Reading what we wrote
- Lunch together, departures
Detailed times go to confirmed guests.
Talks, pages
& practice
Neither a conference, nor a bootcamp, nor a hackathon. A writing retreat run by PhiAI writers, where talks give you material, writing sessions turn it into pages, and walks and music give it room to settle. You leave with a draft of your own and a community to keep thinking with.
- 01Writing sessionsGuided time to draft your own speculative future of workMishka Nemes
- 02Working futuresA talk on what work could become with AIMishka Nemes
- 03Unlearning AI relianceA writing practiceKarin Garcia
- 04Maintaining agency in a world with AIOn agency, paradigm shifts and influencing an industry from the bottom upVeronica Zora Kirin
- 05Reciprocal and relational ethicsApplied to AI systemsCamila Lombana Díaz
- 06The walk of waterCamila Lombana Díaz
- 07How does anything happen?A talk on causality and complexityJáchym Fibír
- 08Making music with the landA session with the participants and the forestAmelie Wich
Writers
& facilitators
PhiAI is a collective of writers bringing the humanities into the AI conversation. For three days you write and live alongside some of them: same house, same table.
Karin Garcia
Founder of PhiAI and AI advisor, writing where AI meets philosophy. Retreat co-lead.
Mishka Nemes
Responsible AI Lead at Trilateral Research. Retreat co-lead, guiding the writing sessions and walking meditations.
Camila Lombana Díaz
SAP's first AI ethicist and founder of Ayni AI Studio. Named among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2025.
Jáchym Fibír
Entrepreneur and researcher at Entropic Science, prototyping quantum-inspired AI architectures.
Veronica Zora Kirin
Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Anodyne magazine and advisor on implementing change. Anthropologist and Forbes NEXT 1,000 entrepreneur.
Amelie Wich
Musician. Plays live through the weekend and makes music with the group and the land around the house.
Hostačov
Hostačov began as a medieval castle and was rebuilt as a Renaissance château in the sixteenth century, when one house was expected to hold scholarship, craft, celebration and argument under a single roof. It still does. Twelve hectares of old trees, forest paths and a lake in the Czech Highlands, seventy minutes from Prague by train or car. The people who run it today have made it a home for research retreats and gatherings like ours.
About the house →
Photographs courtesy of Hostačov
Pay what
fits
- Minimum
- €250
- Suggested
- €450
Apply,
then we talk
- iApply on Luma. A few short questions: who you are, where you see AI changing work around you, what you would like to write.
- iiWe reply within five days. The PhiAI community comes first; the rest of the places are open.
- iiiOnce accepted, you choose your contribution and pay on Luma within seven days.
Before
you apply
01Who is it for?
Professionals whose work is shaped by AI: people in governance, education and policy, founders, product leaders, researchers. People who carry what they think into rooms where decisions about AI get made. Priority goes to the PhiAI community — anthology writers, readers and past guests — and the remaining places are open to anyone.
02Do I need to be a writer?
No. You need something to say about how AI is used where you work or live. The writing sessions are guided, and PhiAI writers are in the room to help you shape it.
03What happens to what I write?
It is yours. The weekend's theme is the theme of our second Anthology, on the futures of work, and its call for submissions is open now. If you want to, you can use the retreat to develop a piece for it.
04Do I share a room?
Most likely. The house has seventeen en-suite bedrooms shared between two or three people. Tell us on the application if you have a need we should know about.
05How do I get there?
Hostačov is about seventy minutes from Prague. Detailed travel information goes out once you are accepted.
06How does the contribution work?
Pay what fits, from €250. We suggest €450. You pay on Luma once your place is confirmed.
07What if I can no longer come?
Cancel up to seven days before the retreat for a full refund, or up to 48 hours before for half. After that we cannot refund, but you can pass your place to someone else; just let us know who. If we have to cancel, you get everything back.
We would like
to write with you
Twenty places for people who want to imagine the futures of work, and write them down. We read applications as they arrive and reply within five days.
Apply on Luma →Opens the Luma event in a new tab