Alignment of Complex Systems Research Group

The Alignment of Complex Systems Research Group (ACS) is an interdisciplinary research group founded in January 2022 by Jan Kulveit and Tomas Gavenciak. The group is academically housed at the Center for Theoretical Study at Charles University in Prague, with administrative and fiscal support from Epistea z.s., a Czech nonprofit organization.

ACS aims to develop an understanding of advanced AI systems and the complex ways in which they are embedded in and interact with humans and human institutions, contributing to making such systems safe and aligned towards shared human values including freedom, kindness, and justice. Rather than studying isolated AI agents, ACS investigates the dynamics of intelligence across multiple scales, from individual agents to complex civilization-scale systems.

The group's research program spans several key areas. Their work on gradual disempowerment investigates how human influence over crucial societal systems including the economy, culture, and governance could be irreversibly eroded through incremental AI advancement, even without coordinated power-seeking by AI systems. Their AI sociology research examines interactions between diverse AI systems, human-AI teams, and existing human institutions. Their hierarchical agency work develops formalisms for understanding superagent-subagent relationships and upward and downward intentionality. They also pursue realistic models of human cognition and values, challenging classical rational agent assumptions.

The team draws on expertise in physics, theoretical computer science, machine learning, cognitive science, and philosophy. Jan Kulveit, the principal investigator, holds a PhD in physics from Charles University and was previously a Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. Other core team members include Tomas Gavenciak (PhD in theoretical computer science), Gavin Leech (PhD candidate in machine learning, co-founder of Arb research consultancy), Simon McGregor (background in computer science, psychology, and artificial life), and Mihaly Barasz (mathematics, former Google SRE).

ACS also organizes the Human-Aligned AI Summer School (HAAISS), an annual educational event held in Prague that brings together PhD students, researchers, and talented students to explore AI alignment topics. The summer school is supported by the Long-Term Future Fund and has been running since at least 2022.

The group operates primarily from Prague, Czech Republic, with additional presence in London and the San Francisco Bay Area. It has received funding from the Survival and Flourishing Fund across multiple grant rounds.