Postdoc (Ethics and Epistemology of AI) at University of Aarhus

Centre for Science Studies, Department of Mathematics, Aarhus University is looking for a postdoc to work within the field of interdisciplinary Ethics and Epistemology of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The position is a fixed-term position available for 36 months from 1 August 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Job description

The position is advertised as part of the project TREAT – Towards Responsible Explainable AI Technologies (https://dff.dk/en/apply/supported-research/research-leaders/research-leader-2023/rune-nyrup), hosted at the Centre for Science studies. TREAT examines the ethics and epistemology of Explainable AI (XAI), that is, technologies for generating explanations of AI systems. The project aims to develop a normative framework for distinguishing beneficial from pernicious uses of XAI.

The successful applicant will conduct philosophical research on XAI and contribute to the organization of workshops and other project activities. Their research will contribute to a work package on explanatory legitimacy, focused on XAI in contexts where the recipients of explanations have diverging explanatory interests and values. Since different types of explanations will tend to favor certain interests over others, this work package will examine how legitimate compromises can be reached between different explanatory interests. The postdoc will also develop a case study on the use of XAI within one of the following domains of application: commercial online platforms, legal decision-support, and smart home devices for elderly care.

The postdoc will be free to shape their research agenda and approach to these questions in accordance with their broader interests, expertise, and career development. The various tasks of the position are organized in continuous agreement with the project leader, associate professor Rune Nyrup.

TREAT is an interdisciplinary project, with collaborators in machine learning, human-computer interaction, law and nursing research, including locally in Aarhus and at the Institute of Technology and Humanity and the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London, and the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. There is funding available in the project for the postdoc to conduct a research visit abroad in order to collaborate with researchers at one or more of these institutions.