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:
Alignment Research
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.
Mechanistic Interpretability
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.
Consultancy
We develop specialized evaluation frameworks to systematically test AI systems for potential risks and unintended behaviors. Our team conducts thorough safety assessments using empirically-grounded methodologies, examining systems for deceptive capabilities, strategic adaptation, and value misalignment. We also perform comprehensive research analysis and literature reviews to support evidence-based decision making in AI safety. Through our consulting work, we help organizations integrate robust safety practices while maintaining our commitment to advancing the field of safe and human-compatible AI.
Model Evaluation & Red-Teaming
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.
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.