COAI - Human Compatible AI
As AI systems become more powerful and integrated into various aspects of our lives, it's crucial to ensure they remain aligned with human goals and values. Our research is essential because it focuses on areas that may not directly lead to immediate economic profit but are vital for keeping humanity in charge of AI development in the long run.
About us
COAI Research is a non-profit research institute dedicated to ensuring AI systems remain aligned with human values and interests as they grow more capable. Founded in Germany, we work at the intersection of AI safety, interpretability, and human-AI interaction.
Our team conducts foundational research in mechanistic interpretability, alignment analysis, and systematic evaluation of AI systems. We focus particularly on identifying and mitigating risks that could emerge from advanced AI capabilities. Through international collaboration with research institutions, we contribute to the global effort of making AI systems demonstrably safe and beneficial.
What we do:
We conduct comprehensive research into ensuring AI systems behave in alignment with human values and intentions. Our work focuses on developing robust methodologies not only for detecting misalignment, analyzing capability changes, and creating structured frameworks for evaluating human-AI interactions rather also for developing methods, and guidelines to support the creation of AI systems aligned to human values and goals. A key aspect of our research involves investigating and implementing techniques that maintain meaningful human oversight throughout AI system deployment and operation.
Alignment Research
How do we design regulations and guidelines so that the power of AI is used for the common good in the right paths? How can we make this transparent and measurable? We establish scientific methodologies for thorough safety testing of production AI systems, enabling early risk detection and mitigation before deployment. Our work contributes to establishing frameworks that ensure AI development remains beneficial while preventing potential harms. We research how systems might attempt to evade safety measures and study real-world scenarios where AI systems could exhibit unintended behaviors. This includes developing standards and protocols that can be transparently implemented and measured, ensuring that the transformative power of AI is channeled toward positive societal outcomes.
(Technical) AI Governance
We analyze AI systems to identify potential risks and unintended behaviors. Through red teaming research, we advance methods to systematically probe AI systems for deceptive capabilities, strategic adaptation, and value misalignment. We research how systems might attempt to evade safety measures and study real-world scenarios where AI systems could exhibit unintended behaviors. Our work contributes to establishing scientific methodologies for thorough safety testing of production AI systems, enabling early risk detection and mitigation before deployment.
Model Evaluation & Red-Teaming
How can we ensure that misaligned systems adhere to our norms and goals? We develop methods to detect and prevent unintended behaviors in AI systems before they cause harm. Our research focuses on creating robust safety measures and control mechanisms that ensure AI systems remain aligned with human values throughout their operation. We investigate how to harmonize the different goal systems between AI and humans, establishing frameworks for reliable oversight and intervention when systems deviate from intended purposes. This includes developing techniques to prevent deceptive capabilities and strategic adaptation that could undermine safety measures.
AI-Control / AI Safety
Increased autonomy and cognitive capabilities change work processes, education, and societal structures. How do we prepare society for this? We conduct comprehensive research into how organizations and communities can adapt to widespread AI adoption and cognitive automation. Our work examines the transformation of labor markets, educational systems, and social institutions as AI takes on increasingly complex cognitive tasks. We investigate frameworks for reskilling workforces, redesigning educational curricula, and restructuring organizational hierarchies to effectively integrate human-AI collaboration. This includes studying the psychological and social effects of AI integration, developing strategies for maintaining human agency and purpose, and creating guidelines for equitable distribution of AI benefits. We analyze how different sectors can prepare for disruption while identifying opportunities for human-AI complementarity that enhances rather than replaces human capabilities.
Societal Impact
Can we understand internally which thoughts, actions, or goals AI systems have and can we make these visible and influence them? We investigate how AI systems process and represent human values, goals, and decision-making patterns. Through analysis tools, we examine internal representations and behavioral patterns that might indicate misalignment or potential risks. Our focus is understanding how value-related concepts are encoded within AI systems, helping ensure they remain transparent and aligned with human interests. This work provides crucial insights into how AI systems develop and maintain their understanding of human values, enabling us to detect when systems might be developing capabilities or goals that diverge from human intentions.
Mechanistic Interpretability
Our Vision and Mission
Our Vision is to be one of the EU’s leading research institute for ensuring AI systems remain fundamentally aligned with human values and goals through pioneering safety research, systematic analysis, and risk mitigation.
Our Mission is to advance the understanding and control of AI systems to safeguard human interests, leveraging deep technical analysis and evaluation methods to support the development of beneficial AI that genuinely serves humanity's needs.