Physicist, Theo Collaborators Program, Quantum Information

Overview

FirstPrinciples is an independent, non-profit research organization building Theo, the AI Physicist - an autonomous scientific system designed to reason about fundamental physics from first principles. Our long-term vision is to accelerate deep scientific discovery by combining machine reasoning with human scientific judgment.

As part of this effort, we are launching the Theo Collaborators Program: a small, selective group of expert physicists who will work with us to validate, guide, and stress-test the scientific reasoning produced by the AI Physicist in a focused research domain. This is not a tool evaluation program, and it is not a traditional advisory role. Collaborators engage with a concrete scientific direction, help assess whether the system’s reasoning is sound, and contribute to shaping what “good AI-generated physics” should look like.

The Theo Collaborators Program is open to late-stage PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, early-career faculty, and industry researchers with strong theoretical backgrounds.

We operate as a global nonprofit organization, with a Canadian foundation, a US-based 501(c)(3).

Current Scientific Focus (2026)

For the initial phase, we are focused on Quantum Information Theory, with emphasis on narrow, formalizable sub-fields where rigorous reasoning and constraint-based results are possible.

Representative areas include

• Structural constraints in quantum LDPC codes
• Trade-offs between locality, rate, and distance in stabilizer codes
• No-go or impossibility results under fault-tolerance assumptions
• Information-theoretic bounds relevant to quantum error correction
• Fundamental limitations of decoding or logical operations

The goal is depth over breadth: producing AI-assisted theoretical results that are technically coherent, non-trivial, and respectable to the physics community.

What Theo Collaborators Do

Theo Collaborators engage at critical points in the research cycle

Question Validation & Framing

• Review candidate research questions generated by the AI Physicist’s Question Formulator (QF)
• Help identify which questions are:
• scientifically meaningful;
• tractable;
• already resolved in the literature; or
• ill-posed.
• Provide feedback on assumptions, scope, and framing and help improve the Question Formulator module.

Shaping Question Ranking & Evaluation Criteria

• Help us refine how questions are ranked by:
• novelty;
• complexity;
• originality;
• tractability; and
• scientific relevance
• Contribute to defining what “interesting” and “non-trivial” should mean for the future autonomous scientific system.

This input directly informs how the AI Physicist prioritizes which questions to pursue deeply.

Scientific Validation of Research Outputs

• Review AI-generated research outputs (Dynamic Research Objects, or DROs) and assess whether they are:
• internally consistent
• mathematically sound
• properly grounded in the relevant literature; and
• aligned with accepted physical principles and assumptions
• Identify errors, gaps, or unclear reasoning, including points where assumptions are too strong, steps are missing, or conclusions are not adequately supported.
• In addition, help us identify where the AI Physicist’s scientific workflow falls short, including:
• limitations in hypothesis generation;
• missing or inadequate evaluation criteria;
• weaknesses in symbolic manipulations or formal reasoning; or
• additional modules and capabilities that would be required to make the reasoning more complete, rigorous, or reliable.

• This feedback directly informs how we evolve the Theo’s architecture and helps ensure that its outputs meet the standards of serious theoretical physics.
• What is a DRO?
• The primary scientific output of the AI Physicist is a Dynamic Research Object (DRO).

A DRO goes beyond a traditional paper and serves as a dynamic, traceable, and reproducible container that captures

• the research question;
• assumptions and representations;
• hypotheses considered;
• reasoning paths explored;
• evaluations performed; and
• final conclusions.

• DROs are designed to make the entire scientific workflow (including failed paths) auditable and understandable by humans.
• A core goal of the Theo Collaborators Program is to help ensure that these DROs are scientifically sound, coherent, and credible.

Who This Is For

We are looking for researchers who

• Work in quantum information theory, QEC, or closely related areas.
• Have strong theoretical and mathematical grounding.
• Are curious, but appropriately skeptical, about AI-assisted research.
• Value rigor, clarity, and intellectual honesty.
• Are comfortable engaging with exploratory, incomplete results.

Typical profiles include

• Late-stage PhD students
• Postdoctoral researchers
• Early-career faculty
• Industry researchers with strong theoretical backgrounds

Time Commitment & Compensation

• 4 month engagement
• Light but focused commitment (~15 hours/month):
• occasional short calls
• asynchronous review and feedback (a few hours per month).

• Collaborators receive a modest honorarium, reflecting the value of their time and expertise.
• Why Participate?

Collaborators join to

• Engage seriously with one of the first autonomous systems attempting real theoretical physics.
• Help define how AI-generated scientific reasoning should be evaluated and trusted.
• Contribute to the emergence of a new scientific research paradigm.
• Influence the standards by which AI-assisted theory will be judged.

How to Express Interest

If this resonates, we welcome a brief expression of interest (no formal application required), including

• a short description of your research background;
• primary areas of expertise; and
• relevant recent work.

Join us at FirstPrinciples and be a part of a transformative journey where science drives progress and unlocks the potential of humanity.