AI Manipulation Hackathon - Berlin

Are you worried about future AI systems using deception, strategic behavior, or psychological exploitation to achieve their goals at the expense of human values and intentions? Join other fellow Berliners in participating in Apart Research's AI Manipulation Hackathon. Whether you want to work alone, remotely with another team or join others locally to build a team, we'll be hosting a jam site for you to work and collaborate from. We'll be working from Trevor's extra large living room in Neukölln just a short hop from the Hermannstraße S/U station (end of the U8 / southeast part of Ringbahn). We'll have reliable Internet, a large wall projector to connect to when working or presenting, and plenty of caffeine. The top teams will get: $2,000 in cash prizes The change to continue developing via Apart Research's Fellowship program Guaranteed acceptance to present at the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI (IASEAI) workshop in Paris on February 26, 2026. Projects can include: Manipulation benchmarks that measure persuasive capabilities, deception, and strategic behavior with real ecological validity Detection systems that identify sycophancy, reward hacking, sandbagging, and dark patterns in deployed AI systems Real-world monitoring tools that analyze actual deployment data to catch manipulation in the wild Evidence-based mitigations – MVPs demonstrating novel countermeasures with empirical backing Multi-agent simulations exploring emergent manipulation dynamics and training processes that produce deceptive behavior Pursue other empirical projects that advance our understanding of how AI systems manipulate and how we can stop them. For questions, contact Trevor on Telegram @FastFedora.