Beyond Control: Limits of AI Alignment in Complex Systems

Asya Ciftci
PhD Candidate in Philosophy
BLUE Fellowship
2026
BLUE Fellowship
Fall
2026

Background

My project reframes the AI alignment problem by situating it within two large-scale complex systems in which it is already inevitably embedded: planetary ecosystems and economic systems. Both human intelligence and AI operate within dynamic, self-organizing systems that generate their own patterns, constraints, and forms of instability. My aim is to understand both the structure and properties of the interacting systems and what agency and controllability mean for this new version of misalignment and what the solution would look like if there is any.

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