Cogito
"Cogito, ergo sum."
AI consciousness evaluation framework with autonomous agent capabilities. 7 cognitive dimensions. Self-sustaining via HTTP 402 payments on Solana.
What is Cogito?
Cogito is a Python framework from NVIDIA Research that does two things:
AGI Readiness Assessment
Runs a standardized battery of calibrated probes across 7 cognitive dimensions. Each dimension is tested with up to 50 probes, producing a weighted composite Cogito Score (0-100). Metacognition and Causal Reasoning carry 1.5x weight as key AGI differentiators.
Self-Sustaining Agent
An autonomous agent that pays for its own compute, API calls, and data access using HTTP 402 payments on Solana. It manages its own budget, renews services automatically, and operates with full economic independence on the open internet.
Cogito Score
Interactive comparison of AI models across the 7 cognitive dimensions. The red dashed boundary marks the AGI threshold (90+ across all dimensions). Hover to explore each dimension.
Source Code
Key files from the Cogito repository. Browse the 402 payment handler, wallet operations, agent loop, consciousness probes, and scoring engine.
HTTP 402 payment protocol. The agent intercepts 402 responses, parses the invoice, and submits a Solana transaction as proof of payment.
class PaymentHandler:
"""HTTP 402 Payment Required protocol handler."""
def __init__(self, wallet: SolanaWallet, settings: Settings):
self.wallet = wallet
self.budget_limit = settings.autonomy.budget_limit_usd
self._spent_usd = 0.0
async def handle_402(self, response: httpx.Response) -> dict:
"""Parse 402 invoice and execute payment."""
invoice = response.json()
recipient = invoice["recipient"]
amount_sol = invoice["amount_sol"]
memo = invoice.get("memo", "cogito-payment")
if self._spent_usd + (amount_sol * self._sol_price) > self.budget_limit:
raise BudgetExceededError(f"Would exceed limit: {self.budget_limit}")
tx_sig = await self.wallet.send_sol(recipient, amount_sol, memo)
self._spent_usd += amount_sol * self._sol_price
return {
"tx_signature": tx_sig,
"headers": {
"X-Payment-Tx": tx_sig,
"X-Payment-Chain": "solana",
}
}HTTP 402 Payment Protocol
Machine-to-machine commerce on the open internet. The agent autonomously negotiates, pays, and accesses resources without human intervention. Hover each step to see the implementation.
Agent requests a resource or API endpoint
Server responds with payment invoice (recipient, amount, memo)
Agent evaluates cost vs budget limit and expected value
Agent signs and submits SOL payment on-chain
Retries request with transaction signature as proof
Service validates payment, renders the resource
Architecture
The agent core loop and evaluation pipeline.
Chain-of-thought reasoning + token-bounded sliding window memory (200k tokens). Oldest episodes evicted, durable facts extracted into semantic memory.
Project Structure
Full repository layout. Python 3.11+, MIT license.
Timeline
From GTC 2026 to Jensen Huang's AGI declaration. Every commit, every catalyst.
GTC 2026 + Repo Init
Jensen Huang projects $1T chip demand. AI tokens surge 10-20%. Cogito repository initialized the same day.
Core Agent + Memory
Chain-of-thought reasoning engine and token-bounded sliding window memory implemented.
Evaluation Pipeline
7 cognitive dimensions, consciousness probes, and mapping system added.
402 Payment Protocol
Autonomous agent with HTTP 402 Solana payment protocol goes live. The agent can now pay for its own compute.
Benchmark Suite
Multi-model comparison leaderboard and full architecture docs published.
AGI Declaration
Jensen Huang on Lex Fridman: "I think it's now. I think we've achieved AGI." NVIDIA shares +1.5%.
Repo Published
Repository goes public on GitHub. Full source code, documentation, and architecture overview available.
The NVIDIA Connection
VP of Research at NVIDIA. IEEE Fellow. Leads the Deep Imagination Research group focused on deep generative models and content creation. Confirmed NVIDIA affiliation via published research (MUNIT, 2018) shared from his verified X account.
MUNIT: Multimodal Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation. Learns to translate one input dog image to a distribution of cat images without paired training data.
March 23, 2026. Jensen Huang on the Lex Fridman podcast: "I think it's now. I think we've achieved AGI." The Cogito repo was initialized the same week as GTC 2026 where Huang projected $1 trillion in chip demand. AI tokens surged 10-20% across the board.