PhD in Responsible Human-AI Collaboration

Job description

AI systems are increasingly used in high-stakes decision-making, such as healthcare and hiring, yet they often reinforce societal biases, leading to unfair outcomes. While human oversight is frequently proposed as a safeguard, research suggests that human involvement does not automatically lead to better and fairer outcomes—challenges such as cognitive overload, uncalibrated (dis)trust in AI, and unclear strategies for bias mitigation limit its effectiveness in practice. This PhD project addresses the following central research question: how can we design human-AI collaboration to mitigate biases and foster equitable decision-making?

To answer this question, the research will focus on three key areas:

• Characterizing human-AI collaboration for bias mitigation – Developing a conceptual framework of responsible human-AI collaboration to better understand the role of human oversight in bias mitigation.
• Understanding human needs for bias mitigation – Understanding how individuals interact with biased AI systems to identify challenges and the types of support needed for effective intervention.
• Designing and evaluating socio-technical interventions – Prototyping and testing interventions, such as novel explainable AI techniques, to help humans effectively detect and mitigate bias in AI-assisted decisions.

The objective of the temporary position is the production of several research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings, which together will form the basis of a thesis leading to a PhD degree (Dr.) at the University of Groningen. The intended starting date of the position is as soon as possible.

Organisation

Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen enjoys an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Flexible study programmes and academic career opportunities in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 34,000 students and researchers alike to develop their own individual talents. As one of the best research universities in Europe, the University of Groningen has joined forces with other top universities and networks worldwide to become a truly global centre of knowledge.

Within the Faculty of Science and Engineering, a 4-year PhD position is available to start as soon as possible at the Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence with the topic of responsible human-AI collaboration. The successful candidate will become a member of the Multi-Agent Systems Group, Artificial Intelligence Department and will work under the supervision of Dr. Jakob Schoeffer.

Qualifications

The successful candidate should have the following qualifications:

• A master’s degree (completed or near completion) in artificial intelligence, computational cognitive science, human-computer interaction, computer science, information systems, industrial engineering, applied psychology, or another relevant field.
• A keen interest in pursuing interdisciplinary research at the interface of responsible and explainable artificial intelligence, as well as human-AI interaction and -collaboration.
• Good programming skills, preferably in Python.
• Good statistics skills and first experiences in designing and conducting behavioural experiments desirable.
• Good written and verbal communication skills in English.

Organisation

Conditions of employment

We offer you, following the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities

• A salary of € 2,901 gross per month in the first year, up to a maximum of € 3,707 gross per month in the fourth and final year for a full-time working week.
• A holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income and an 8.3% year-end bonus.
• Teaching: Employed PhD candidates are expected to spend 10% of their working hours on teaching and/or supervising students.
• A full-time position (1.0 FTE) to start as soon as possible. The successful candidate will first be offered a temporary position of one year with the option of renewal for another three years. Prolongation of the contract is contingent on sufficient progress in the first year to indicate that a successful completion of the PhD thesis within the next three years is to be expected. A PhD training programme is part of the agreement, and the successful candidate will be enrolled in the Graduate School of Science and Engineering.