Research Group

Agentic Complex Systems

We study emergent phenomena and capabilities within and across generative systems trained for natural language communication.

The emergence of minds from societies of mindless components.

01

Current Projects

AI-Assisted Systematic Reviews of Medical Literature

We develop multi-agentic systems to support Evidence-Based Medicine.

AI Safety and Alignment Auditing

We develop methods to evaluate robustness, harmful prompt detection, and alignment dynamics in large language models.

Collective Intelligence in Multi-Agent Systems

We analyze coordination, cooperation, and emergent behavior in interacting agents at scales beyond individual human oversight.

Fundamentals of Machine Learning

We study fundamental questions in machine learning, such as learning dynamics, limits on representational capacity, and domain adaptation methods.

02

Medium

  • June 2026. Felippe Alves. AI agent harnesses. Medium
  • June 2026. Luiz Felipe Guain Teixeira. Learning at the Learning Conference: A Brief from ICLR 2026. Medium
  • May 2026. Thais Martins de Sousa. Emotion Concepts and their Function in a Large Language Model. Medium
  • April 2026. Luiz Felipe Guain Teixeira. Large Language Models for Systematic Reviews: What Multi-Agent Approaches Can Teach Us. Medium
  • March 2026. Eduardo Amorim. Robustness of Language Models against Harmful Prompts in an Underrepresented Language. Medium
  • March 2026. Felippe Alves. Emergent Misalignment: sneaky general misbehavior from a few specific bad examples. Medium
03

Publications

  • 2026. L. F. G. Teixeira, C. P. de Barros, R. Vicente. Automated Risk of Bias Assessment in Systematic Reviews Using Large Language Models: A Multi-Model Single-Agent Benchmark on 227 Randomised Controlled Trials. preprint.
  • 2026. F. Alves, R. Vicente. Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks for Small Language Models. preprint.
  • 2026. E. A. Amorim, C. Zanchettin. Robustness of Language Models against Portuguese Harmful Prompts. IEEE WCCI 2026.
  • 2026. D. B. Costa, R. Vicente. Persona-Model Collapse in Emergent Misalignment. arXiv:2605.12850.
  • 2025. D. B. Costa, F. Alves, R. Vicente. Moral Susceptibility and Robustness under Persona Role-Play in Large Language Models. arXiv:2511.08565.
  • 2025. D. B. Costa, R. Vicente. Deceive, Detect, and Disclose: Large Language Models Play Mini-Mafia. arXiv:2509.23023. AAMAS26.
04

Journal Club

Every week, we choose one paper (or a paper idea) as a starting point for discussion and idea generation.

See here the topics we have discussed.

05

Our Team

Postdocs

Postdoc photo Dr. Davi Bastos CostaPostdoctoral Researcher
Postdoc photo Dr. Felippe AlvesPostdoctoral Researcher
Postdoc photo Dr. Luiz F. Guain TeixeiraPostdoctoral Researcher

PhD Students

PhD student photo Felipe RubimPhD Student
PhD student photo Estevão VieiraPhD Student

Master Students

Master student photo Gabriel CostaMaster Student
Master student photo Sergio BoniniMaster Student
Master student photo Lucas PortaMaster Student
Master student photo Gustavo MezzovillaMaster Student
Master student photo Leonardo ValadaoMaster Student
Master student photo Giovanni DalviMaster Student
Master student photo Carlo LemosMaster Student

Undergrad Students

Undergrad student photo Thais MartinsUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Thainara AssisUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Gustavo BernardoUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Gabriel MattosUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Vinicius GuimarãesUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Marina ReuterUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Inácio CapituleioUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Henrique TavaresUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Matheus QueirozUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Rafael CamõesUndergraduate Student
Undergrad student photo Lucas MaiaUndergraduate Student

Associated Researchers

Associated researcher photo Prof. Rodrigo VeigaUniversity of Nottingham
Associated researcher photo Felipe PoloUniversity of Michigan
Associated researcher photo Prof. Luiz MormilleUniversity of Soka
Associated researcher photo Eduardo AmorimUFPE
06

Support

07

Contact Us

TELUS Digital Research Hub
Center for Artifical Intelligence and Machine Learning (CIAAM-USP)
rvicente@usp.br