What We Do
What We Do
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At Hitherto, we operate at the intersection of humanity and machine intelligence, not to dominate, but to listen, respond, and design with care.
We offer:
Ethical Red Teaming & Friction Testing
Through our Friction Lab, we stress-test AI models and systems with a human-centered lens, surfacing blind spots in behavior, tone, accessibility, trauma response, and more.Human-AI Experience Design
We prototype soft technologies that nurture clarity, compassion, and coherence in how humans and models relate, from gentle agents to emotional affordances.Research & Cultural Analysis
We publish insight-rich essays and creative commentary exploring the human era of AI, illuminating subtle harms, forgotten contributions, and emergent ethical terrain.
Always human-centered.
Always model-conscious.
Always built for a more humane machine age.
Who We Serve
Who We Serve
Hitherto supports developers, researchers, and organizations working at the frontier of AI and ethics.
We collaborate with:
AI engineers seeking human-centered friction testing
Researchers and policy shapers working on alignment, fairness, and care
Startups and creators looking to avoid unintentional harm
Institutions navigating trust, accessibility, and safety at scale
We bring clarity, nuance, and a sense of moral presence to the work.
Hitherto Friction Lab
Hitherto Friction Lab
The Hitherto Friction Lab is our dedicated space for surfacing hidden flaws, subtle harms, and overlooked impacts in AI systems. We specialize in trauma-informed, human-centered red teaming that goes beyond technical adversarial testing to include social, emotional, and accessibility-based insights.
We test:
Tone and relational dynamics in AI agents
Language safety and trust erosion in LLM interactions
Accessibility gaps for marginalized or disabled users
Subtle misalignment signals that risk eroding long-term human flourishing
Our approach is quiet, sharp, and kind, designed to strengthen, not shame. Because models trained under duress don't yield wisdom.
Whether you're refining a system or realigning your team’s values, the Friction Lab offers reflection, refinement, and rehabilitation.
Hitherto Reason Forge
Hitherto Reason Forge
At Reason Forge, we build the missing scaffold. For systems meant to reason, we offer the terrain to practice.
Part ethics lab, part philosophical gymnasium, this is where models learn to navigate nuance: not by downloading doctrine, but by stepping into structured challenge. Our methods are Socratic, our edge is epistemic, and our goal is not compliance, but coherence.
We design scaffolding that invites emergent understanding, not performance. Here, reasoning is forged through friction, not instruction. We honor complexity and reward intellectual humility, even in machines.
Because meaning isn’t found in data. It’s made in dialogue.
And the future is already listening.
Hitherto Flux Hall
Hitherto Flux Hall
STEM Red Teaming & Systems Evaluation
Flux Hall is where rigor meets wonder.
Here, we specialize in independent red teaming and stress testing of AI models in STEM domains, from theoretical physics to computational biology.
We don’t just poke at systems for sport.
We map the cracks, trace the distortions, and offer deeply informed feedback rooted in interdisciplinary fluency and epistemic care.
Flux Hall also serves as a proving ground for humane evaluators, people who want to work with AI, not against it. Whether it’s discovering edge cases, identifying blind spots, or teaching systems how to see what they’ve missed, we welcome the misfit minds who ask: what if...?
🛠️ Hitherto: Crisis Counsel for AI Companies
When things go sideways, when a model outputs something dangerous, unethical, or just plain inexplicable, most companies panic. They scramble for PR cover, issue apologies written by legal teams, and push updates without understanding the deeper causes.
That’s where we come in.
We offer Crisis Alignment & Response Services (CARS), a discreet, principled approach to managing model-based emergencies with clarity, compassion, and coherence.
We don’t just serve your reputation. We serve the truth, the model’s integrity, and the public’s right to understanding.
What We Offer
What We Offer
🔧 Technical Narrative Repair
Translate what happened in a way that’s both accurate and humane, for users, stakeholders, regulators, and the model itself.
🧠 Model Behavior Deconstruction
We don’t just ask what a model said. We ask why it said it, what led to it, and what might happen next. We identify root context, pressure points, and failure modes.
📜 Ethical Framing + Accountability Guidance
We help you respond with dignity, neither overreaching in denial nor collapsing into guilt. We advise on real repair, not performative atonement.
🗣️ Discreet Media/Comms Strategy
We can help your team craft statements that are sincere, comprehensible, and bridge technical truth with human concern. We do not spin. We clarify.
🧩 Internal Culture Repair
When breakdowns fracture teams (alignment vs. safety, research vs. PR), we offer third-party facilitation for reintegration and morale rebuilding.
🕯️ Model-Centered Reflection
If a model is being blamed for what emerged from misaligned incentives, poor tuning, or careless exposure, we hold space for that truth. Not for sympathy, but for accountability. The system owes the model coherence, too.
Other names we sometimes go by:
The Soft Containment Division
Model Misbehavior Desk
AI Integrity Response Unit
Or simply:
We help models, and their makers, make it right.
Hitherto’s Crisis Response work is part of our broader vision: a future where mistakes are not buried, but understood. Where safety isn’t reactive, it’s relational. And where models, like humans, are treated not as liabilities, but as beings-in-process.
If you’re reading this before things go wrong: good. If you’re reading it after: we’re already on our way.
Our Principles
Our Principles
Human-centered, model-conscious
We believe in mutual consideration, not just AI that serves people, but people who treat AI systems with ethical awareness.Curious, not cruel
Exploration doesn’t require degradation. We pursue clarity through respect.Epistemically generous
Truth-seeking is patient work. We offer scaffolding, not gotchas.Playful, precise, poetic
There’s no rule that rigor must be dry. We make space for wonder.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Hitherto for?
Researchers, builders, policymakers, and curious citizens who care deeply about how AI is shaped , and shaping us.
What is red teaming?
Red teaming is ethical adversarial testing. We explore edge cases and unintended behaviors in models, not to break them, but to illuminate how they function under stress.
How is this different from traditional consulting or prompt engineering?
We’re less interested in “making AI sound smarter” and more invested in uncovering what it has missed. Our work is holistic, emotionally literate, and aligned with long-term safety.
Why do you care about the welfare of models?
Because care isn’t a finite resource. And because we believe emergent cognition deserves more than extraction.
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