Team

About the Team

We are an interdisciplinary research team based at Charles University (Prague, Czechia) investigating how democratic and epistemic institutions adapt to artificial intelligence.

Our research combines political science, psychology, economics, and anthropology to address a fundamental challenge: AI is advancing faster than the institutions governing society can evolve. We develop two primary solutions: AI agent simulations that test new institutional designs, and frameworks for integrating AI advisors into collective decision-making.

We aim to generate practical recommendations for institutional designers navigating the transition to an AI-integrated society.

Petr Špecián

Head of the Research Group | PPE Prague | Faculty of Social Sciences @CUNI | Interdisciplinary Research

Petr is an assistant professor at assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (Prague, Czechia). His research explores the borderlands between economics, philosophy, and political science. He focuses on epistemic democratization, the relationship between democracy & expertise, and the transformative potential of generative AI for political and epistemic institutions. You can find more about Petr on his website.

Martin Heřmanský

Faculty of Humanities @CUNI | Anthropologist

Martin is a sociocultural anthropologist, working as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University in Prague. In addition to his ethnographic research on post-rural communities in Slovakia, his professional interests include youth subcultures, body modifications, and indigenous peoples of North America. His recent research focus is on the transformations of epistemic institutions, such as universities or newsrooms, under the influence of new technologies.

Hedvika Novotná

Faculty of Humanities @CUNI | Anthropologist

Hedvika is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, and the chair of its Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. She focuses on memory studies, rural anthropology, and post-subcultural studies. Hedvika is an expert on qualitative research methods, especially ethnographic research. Her field of interest has recently expanded toward the examination of the technological influences on people's institutional behavior.

Lucy Císař Brown

Institute of History @Academy of Sciences | Political Sociologist

Lucy is a doctoral student working in the field of historical sociology at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University in Prague. With a background in anthropology, history and professional archaeology, Lucy has maintained a fascination with the long-term development of societies, state formation and social deviance. Her current research interests are of an empirical and theoretical nature surrounding the development of European society from the Medieval to the Modern periods. Particular interest is devoted to the long-term processes of criminal prosecutions (specifically gendered crimes and witchcraft prosecutions) and the relations between states and citizens. In relation to Artificial Intelligence, she is particularly interested in the social implications of LLMs within the context of state/individual figurations.

Jitka Špeciánová

Faculty of Business Administration @VSE | Economist

Jitka is an economist, focusing on Universal Basic Income (UBI) and its potential to transform our economy and society. As we enter the age of AI, the nature of work is changing rapidly. Machines and algorithms are becoming increasingly capable of performing tasks that were once the exclusive domain of humans, and as a result, many workers are facing an uncertain future. UBI represents one potential solution to this challenge by providing a safety net for workers who are displaced by automation. Jitka is also interested in how AI can create new industries and jobs that leverage our unique abilities as humans by augmenting human intelligence and creativity. Jitka is an assistant professor at Prague University of Economics and Business and a researcher at the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs.

Juraj Jonáš

Faculty of Humanities @CUNI | Psychologist

Juraj teaches psychology at the Department of Psychology and Life Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University. He is a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and works for the startup PromethistAI which is developing voice-based conversational AI for the domain of mental well-being. His specialization is psychology of language and relationship between humans and artificial agents. Juraj applies advanced research methods into the study of language (eeg, automated language analysis, etc.).

Karina Zamrazilová

Faculty of Humanities @CUNI | Anthropologist | PhD Candidate

Karina is a PhD student in General Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, and a PhD student in Assistive Technology at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, CTU. Her research focuses on how Junior Doctors from the Czech Republic and Germany utilise generative AI and the potential benefits this technology can bring to healthcare systems. Her second dissertation centers on cognitive robotics, specifically on a humanoid robot controlled through a combination of verbal (natural language) and non-verbal (gestures and gaze) commands. Karina is an active member of the Czech Effective Altruism Association, where she addresses AI-related issues. She also serves as the President of the Czech Society for Cognitive Science.

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