PhD Position Title
PhD position in Machine learning in science and society A Dangerous Toy?
PhD Position Summary
Are you interested in philosophical questions surrounding how machine learning and AI models are being used across society for social prediction, like facial recognition, recidivism risk, or job screening? Check out this PhD position!
Your job
The same machine learning methods that are unprecedently used across large areas of science are also wide ranging across society. ML models are determining what news we see, risk scores for fraud, and more. LLMs are structuring our knowledge with ChatGPT integrated with Bing search and Quora answers, even despite well documented cases of ChatGPT ‘hallucinations.’
Current approaches to evaluating ML models in society have clustered around issues of fairness, bias, problems of justice by introducing ML models at scale, the right to explanation, and more. While all these issues remain important, there is a deep worry that ML models might not be providing us with genuine information or knowledge in the first place. Before we can make informed decisions about when and where ML models should be used across society, we need to understand their epistemic value.
The aim of this PhD project is to bring methods and resources from philosophy of science (e.g. idealisation and representation) to answer important questions in AI ethics regarding appropriate use of ML models in society. How do ML models idealize social phenomena? When do the idealisations of ML models get in the way of acceptable use?
This PhD project is part of the ERC Starting Grant project Machine Learning in Science and Society: A Dangerous Toy? (TOY) The project team consists of the PI (Emily Sullivan ), this PhD position, and two forthcoming postdoc positions. The PhD candidate will be embedded within the theoretical philosophy group at Utrecht University and the Normative Philosophy of Science research lab.
Your qualities
- A Master’s degree in philosophy or related discipline by the start of the appointment;
- an interest in at least two of the following areas: philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of technology, ethics of AI, and public policy;
- a research-oriented attitude;
- fluent in spoken and written English.
About us
A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow Working at the Faculty of Science means bringing together inspiring people across disciplines and with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. The faculty has six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information & Computing Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Together, we work on excellent research and inspiring education. We do so, driven by curiosity and supported by outstanding infrastructure. Visit us on LinkedIn and discover how you can become part of our community.
The Department of Information and Computing Sciences is nationally and internationally known for its research in computer science and information science. The Department provides and contributes to a number of undergraduate and research Master programmes in the fields of Computer Science, Information Science, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. It employs over 200 people in four divisions: Algorithms, AI & Data Science, Software and Interaction. The atmosphere is collegial and informal.
You will join the NLP & Society Lab where we work on a variety of topics, including computational sociolinguistics, analysis of online conversations, data-centered NLP, and evaluation of NLP models. We are part of the wider NLP group
external link within the Department of Information and Computing Sciences, with researchers working on multimodal NLP, text generation, modelling label variation in subjective tasks, and many other topics.
Our Offer
We offer:
- a position for 18 months – after a positive evaluation the position will be extended for the remaining period of 30 months (48 months in total);
- a working week of 36 hours and a gross monthly salary between €2,872 and €3,670 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
- 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
- a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.
Application Deadline
December 10, 2024