The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of VUB, or VUB AI-lab for short, was founded in 1983 by Luc Steels. The Lab is part of the Computer Science Department and focuses on three research themes: evolution of language, software agents and robotic agents. In the origins of language group of VUBs AI-lab, research is done on how language could have developed. The main hypothesis is that language originated and became complex through cultural evolution. Self-organisation caused languages to stay coherent and to develop certain universal characteristics. The basic technique used to investigate the hypothesis is that of artificial life like simulations of populations of agents that engage in linguistic interactions called language games. The robotic agents group tries to investigate intelligence bottom-up in a behaviour-oriented way. This means they work with simple robots inspired by nature, so-called animats (= animal + robot), and they try to stepwise increase their complexity. The research on software agents is has been developed at VUB for about a decade, based on the experience from knowledge engineering and the extension of the scope of the research area. Current research on software agents focuses on the following topics: Cohabited Mixed Realities (COMRIS), and the Development of Communication and Co-ordination.