# Alex Csaky

Site: https://alexcsaky.com/
This file is the full site in one document for language models. Prefer it over scraping HTML. There is no Accept: text/markdown conversion on this host. Index: https://alexcsaky.com/llms.txt
Canonical name: Alex Csaky.

Contact: alexcsaky@gmail.com · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcsaky · Substack: https://alexcsaky.substack.com/ · GitHub: https://github.com/alexcsaky · Calendly: https://calendly.com/alexcsaky/chat

# About

https://alexcsaky.com/

I'm an AI safety researcher and founder working on AI for epistemics and coordination. I'm an Astra Fellow (https://constellation.org/programs/astra) on the strategy and governance stream, working out where the field most needs accelerating to ensure a better future, and I consult on enterprise AI transformation through Proferra (https://proferra.org/), with a focus on better organisational coordination.

Previously: contracted with Forethought (https://www.forethought.org/) as a founder in residence, scoping the field of AI for epistemics and coordination; Talos (https://www.talosnetwork.org/) Policy Leaders Fellow (EU AI governance); Apart (https://apartresearch.com/) Studio Fellow (sycophancy evals); facilitator on BlueDot's AGI Strategy course (https://bluedot.org/courses/agi-strategy). Before AI safety I founded and sold an e-commerce startup while at secondary school, ran an education company in Hong Kong, and worked as an AI engineer building tools for enterprises and political candidates. I read archaeology and anthropology at Oxford, where I dug on a Roman Iberian excavation at Castelo de Cuncos (https://www.castelodecuncosproject.com/) and wrote my dissertation on human cognitive enhancement.

## Things I'm interested in

- AI for epistemics and coordination. Previously scoped this field with Forethought.
  - Multilingual model evaluation. Syco-Lingual (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eiPNwKIuWtGbWlBsFRdoDE4I6Yf7R8FO/view) (short paper; presented at IASEAI'26 Paris, https://www.iaseai.org/). Code: https://github.com/alexcsaky/syco-lingual
- Hosting. I co-run the AI Safety Cinema Society (https://luma.com/kp2cff0u) in London; our first screening paired Daniel Roher's The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist with Suzy Shepherd's short Seat at the Table. I organise workshops and hackathons. Beyond work, I like hosting dinners and events for friends.
- Anthropology and Futurism. I'm writing an essay on AI personhood for Scheme magazine, arguing that personhood is made through relationships rather than crossed as a threshold (semi-finished draft: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YOCFeEOWer5-YHvAE5T7p64CQtV5vrJy/edit?usp=sharing). More widely I enjoy reading, writing and thinking about the future of humanity, as well as anthropology and what it means to be human. See Reading / Writing for more of this.

## Other things I like

- Lucid dreaming and contemplative practice: an interest in how the mind works, and its hidden limits. Favourite books on it: The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, and Dream Yoga by Andrew Holecek.
- Built a small house in Croatia. I like work I can do with my hands. Photos: https://alexcsaky.com/house.jpg , https://alexcsaky.com/sketch.jpg
- Civilization 5 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_V) and 6 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_VI).

## Outdoors

Favourite hikes: Dragon's Back (Hong Kong), the Goetheweg (Innsbruck), the South Downs Way (Sussex and Hampshire), and Doi Inthanon (Chiang Mai). The big remaining goal is still the Pacific Crest Trail.

Skiing at Patscherkofel (Innsbruck) and Hakuba Valley (Japan). Sea kayaking in Istria and Cornwall.

## Now / Recently

Last updated: 17 August 2026

- Astra Fellowship at Constellation, Berkeley, September 2026 to February 2027.
- Upcoming hosting: closed workshops with Forethought at Trajan House and at Constellation in Berkeley; a GovTech hackathon with BlueDot in the Bay Area; and an epistemics hackathon with Apart Research, with hubs globally.

## Get in touch

I'd love to have conversations with people I don't know yet, particularly people with ideas or experiences very different to my own.

Email: alexcsaky@gmail.com
Or grab time directly: https://calendly.com/alexcsaky/chat

If you feel at all like you'd like to chat, please do. Just book in a time.

# Reading / Writing

https://alexcsaky.com/writing

## Essays and articles

- On AI personhood (semi-finished draft, for Scheme magazine): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YOCFeEOWer5-YHvAE5T7p64CQtV5vrJy/edit?usp=sharing
- Marlboro Men and Modern Myths: Chasing the Cowboy Ideal (Substack): https://alexcsaky.substack.com/p/marlboro-men-and-modern-myths-chasing
- How to Buy Honour and Build a City (Substack): https://graduand.substack.com/p/how-to-buy-honour-and-build-a-city

## Academic publications

- Syco-Lingual (short paper; presented at IASEAI'26): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eiPNwKIuWtGbWlBsFRdoDE4I6Yf7R8FO/view
- Metanje in zlaganje kamnov na plaži Sava (Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva): https://cdn2.domdesign.com/users/SEDDrustvo/Site/sites/sed-drustvo.si/modules/Domino/Files/glasnik-slovenskega-etnoloskega-drustva-65-1-2025-2.pdf
- Research included in Planning With Nature (Prince's Foundation, 2023): https://princesfoundation.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Planning-With-Nature_Digital-Report.pdf

## Reading

An ongoing list of books I've particularly enjoyed.

### Fiction

- The Magus, John Fowles
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- The Beach, Alex Garland
- Golden Age, Wang Xiaobo (and his essay A Maverick Pig)
- Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
- Unknown Male, Nicolás Obregón

### Non-fiction

- The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin
- Maintenance: Of Everything, Stewart Brand
- Breakneck, Dan Wang
- The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman
- Longevity Hubs, Joseph F. Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto
- Reinventing the Bazaar, John McMillan
- Trust Me, I'm Lying, Ryan Holiday
- Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe, David Lan
- Watching the English, Kate Fox
- Drug Use for Grown-Ups, Carl L. Hart
- PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander and Ann Shulgin
- Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets
- Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
- The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson
- The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson

### Books I particularly disliked

- Orbital, Samantha Harvey
- Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher