Artificial Intelligence is used more and
more in society, from healthcare to government decisions and
recruitment. Along with the rapid increase of AI adoption come
increased concerns about the inherent shortcomings of such
technologies (e.g., robustness) and the social, and ethical
implications. To create AI systems that can properly serve
humans, it is crucial to put humans at the centre of the
process such that the outcome system behaves in a way that
fits the values and needs of people. This poses new challenges
both to philosophical work on values and to (responsible)
technological development. What (ethical) requirements should
these systems adhere to? What does such ‘adherence’ mean and
how can we demonstrate and validate claims regarding
adherence? How to build AI systems that can be understood by
humans and that can align their behaviour with human values?
Tackling these challenges requires bridging the gap between
philosophy and computer science within AI Ethics.
TU Delft has world-leading expertise in the operationalization
of AI Ethics and now looks to strengthen this by hiring two
three-year post-docs, one in philosophy and one in computer
science, that will be closely collaborating on topics within AI
Ethics of their choice.
The philosophy post-doc is embedded in the TU Delft Digital
Ethics Centre which focuses on translating philosophical values
into design requirements. Here, research is done on the
methodology of embedding values, as well as on the specification
of moral and epistemic values:
tudelft.nl/digitalethics. The
computer science post-doc is embedded in the Web Information
Systems (WIS) group, a world-class research group on data
management, human-centered AI, information retrieval, and user
modeling. The post-doc will work independently on research that
can be well embedded in WIS; they will also contribute to the
management of AI projects.Both post-docs are also connected to
the activities of the TU Delft AI Initiative and the national
Digital Society program.
There are strong interdisciplinary connections already present,
with joint supervision and publications already taking place.
The joint research of the post-docs will furthermore be
supported by dr. Jie Yang (computer science) and dr. Stefan
Buijsman (philosophy) as well as Prof. dr. ir. Geert-Jan Houben
(computer science) and Prof. dr. Jeroen van den Hoven
(philosophy).
Practical Information:
2 Post-docs for 3 years
Salary €2.960,00 - € 4.670,00
Requirements: a PhD in a field related to the topic of the
post-doc, so either related to philosophy or to computer science
and the willingness to work in interdisciplinary teams
Apply before January 22nd by sending your CV and a motivation
letter that briefly describes why you apply for this position,
your research interests, and your fit to the two groups.