Team
About the Team
We are an interdisciplinary research team based at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czechia. We share a passion for understanding AI-related institutional change, pursuing practically relevant research, and fostering human-positive technological advancements. By employing rigorous qualitative and quantitative methodologies, we analyze real-world data to inform and shape the future of AI-driven institutional transformation. Our expertise is further enriched by a strong theoretical foundation, enabling us to develop comprehensive normative frameworks to guide innovative institutional design.
Head of the Research Group
Petr Špecián
Petr is an assistant professor at Charles University and Prague University of Economics and Business in Czechia. His research explores the borderlands between economics, philosophy, and political science. It focuses on epistemic democratization, the relationship between democracy & expertise, and the transformative potential of generative AI for political institutions. You can find more about Petr on his website.
Team Members
Martin Heřmanský
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
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.
Jitka Špeciánová
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
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.).
Lucy Císař Brown
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.
Karina Zamrazilová
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.
Martin Dolský
Martin is a Master's student in General Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University. He works as an applied researcher with Socionaut, a collective specializing in participatory urban planning. Martin's academic trajectory has been marked by a focus on urban anthropology, earning him the CASA award for the best bachelor's thesis in 2021. Currently, he is involved in his master's research, examining the evolving learning practices, perceptions, and values among Czech university students in the context of the proliferation of large language models.