The Faculty of Humanities and the Research Priority Area in Humane AI at the University of Amsterdam (
https://humane-ai.nl/) currently has a vacant Postdoc researcher position as part of the broader field Humane AI. Within this field the focus is on data and platforms for social, cultural, and economic innovation. The post is to be affiliated with one of the five Research Schools within the
Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research or the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation.
What are you going to doAI is transforming our lives. Important work in the domain of AI ethics, transparency, and accountability have sharpened our view for potential impacts on individuals and communities, but the question remains how to react to these insights as a society. Legislation like the GDPR or AI Act propose elements of government regulation, but we need to go further with new forms of citizen participation or design guidelines.
This postdoc position is dedicated to exploring possibilities how to bridge the gap between often abstract AI principles such as transparency and responsibility and strategies for the democratisation of AI that reach citizens. AI democratization cannot be limited to expert engineers auditing or controlling technologies from a detached vantage point but needs to involve everyone and especially those communities that are most affected by AI but lack a voice in its design. Driving this involvement can be a key role for the humanities in the further development of AI.
Practically, this process can involve strategies of co-design and co-research, efforts in deliberating with and educating citizens, and technical interfaces that allow for re- configuration and intervention in algorithmic logic. The candidate will approach such novel participatory spaces both conceptually, providing a robust theoretical frame for the transformation of insight into impact, as well as practically, for example through the organization of datathons and participatory workshops, connecting directly to the Faculty's internationally renowned tradition in organizing these kinds of transdisciplinary events.
Your tasks and responsibilities:
- Develop, conduct, and publish research on co-designing and co-researching responsible AI in the humanities;
- Contribute to the overall Humane AI research focus within the university and faculty;
- conducting research, presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences and publishing two single-authored, peer reviewed articles;
- participating in meetings of the project research group and developing a shared database;
- co-organising knowledge dissemination activities.