PhD: Key Enabling Methodologies (KEMs) for Harmonising LLMs with Societal Values

Do you want to understand and shape how professionals of all backgrounds can contribute to emergent futures of generative AI? Do you thrive on connecting and collaborating with a wide range of partners, putting participation and co-creation at the heart of your research work? Apply for this position for the opportunity to conduct design-led research on a major societal concern within an EU wide doctoral training network with university secondments.

We are seeking a highly motivated doctoral candidate to join our research team as part of a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) doctoral network: AlignAI. The AlignAI doctoral network aims to train doctoral candidates to develop, evaluate, and engage with Large Language Models (LLMs). It focuses on aligning these models with human values to ensure their development and deployment are ethically sound and socially beneficial. By integrating expertise from social sciences, humanities, and technical disciplines, the project will address critical issues such as explainability and fairness, thereby ensuring LLMs contribute positively to education, mental health, and news consumption.

In this position, the doctoral candidate will apply, evaluate and innovate Key Enabling Methodologies (KEMs) for the influx of LLMs into every socio-economic sector, paying special attention to the diversity of agencies and intentionalities within the realities of LLMs deployed in socio-technical systems. The particular value of KEMs are that, while based in design, they are applicable by a wide range of people to approach challenges. In the context of AI usage in complex socio-technical systems (e.g., in education, news consumption, mental health), KEMs need to be elaborated carefully in order to ensure inclusivity of concerns and to reflect a diversity of agencies. Potential results of the doctoral research include the validation of existing KEMs and the creation of new likewise broadly accessible tools and strategies oriented at value-alignment of LLMs.

The doctoral candidate will need to apply methods from design-led and qualitative research to philosophy of technology, human-computer interaction, computer science, science and technology studies, innovation management, and/or related disciplines. They will also need to develop an appreciation of contemporary LLM applications as complex socio-technical systems. Thus, the ideal candidate will have an interdisciplinary background that spans several of the aforementioned disciplines, and that demonstrates a clear interest in AI technology and its societal impact. At the same time, the candidate will have the necessary language, communication, and analytic skills to produce research of publishable quality.

The doctoral candidate will be supervised by Prof. Stephan Wensveen and Dr. Jesse Benjamin embedded within the cluster Designing with Intelligence, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Additional supervision will be provided within the AlignAI doctoral network by Prof. Daniel Gatica Perez (Digital Humanities, EPFL) and Professor Azzurra Ruggeri (Psychology, TU München). The candidate will be expected to contribute actively and positively to the design and AI research communities in Eindhoven, as well as to attend workshops, summer schools, and research visits at AlignAI partner institutions.

This position is one of four PhD positions being offered at TU/e through the AlignAI doctoral network, the others being in Human Technology Interaction (Martijn Willemsen) and Philosophy & Ethics group (Carlos Zednik).

Requirements:

• Candidates must have a bachelor and/or master's degree in Industrial Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Design Anthropology or a closely related discipline.
• Applicants must not own a doctoral degree at the date of recruitment.
• Applicants may be of any nationality, but must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
• Candidates must be able to work in an interdisciplinary team and interested in collaborating with industrial partners.
• Candidates must be motivated to develop their teaching skills and coach students.
• Candidates must be fluent in spoken and written English (C1 level).

Eligibility criteria

• Supported researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment.
• Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date. For 'International European Research Organisations' (IERO), 'international organisations', or entities created under Union law, the researchers must not have spent more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment in the same appointing organisation. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent by the researcher as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not considered.

Selection Procedure

• Application Submission: Applications must be submitted by December 1, 2024.
• Selection Criteria: Candidates will be evaluated based on their academic background, research experience, and alignment with the project's objectives. The selection process will be open, transparent, merit-based, impartial, and equitable.
• Interview: Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a structured interview with predefined questions and a scoring system.
• Reserve List: A reserve list of top candidates may be created for future opportunities.
• Selection Committee: The selection committee will comprise diverse experts ensuring gender balance, nationality diversity, and relevant experience.

Salary Benefits:

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (gross salary from €2,872 (1st year) to €3,670 (4th year)).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• This salary and bonus are in accordance with the MSCA regulations for Doctoral Researchers and will be paid from the relevant monthly gross allowances (gross living allowance € 3.400 per month; gross mobility allowance € 600 per month; gross family allowance € 660 per month, only if applicable).
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates. 

38 hours per week

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