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Journals & Conference Calls, Open Positions

  • PhD student for Responsible Recommenders in the Public Library Deadline 4 September 2021CWI
    Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) has a vacancy in the Human-Centered Data Analytics research group for a talented PhD student for Responsible Recommenders in the Public Library. Job description This research project, funded by the KB National Library of the Netherlands, explores the practical implementation of ethical AI principles in the context of book recommendations for public library users. The goal is to design, develop and evaluate recommender systems not only in terms of end-user satisfaction, but also in terms of public values and ethical principles, such as inclusiveness, transparency and privacy. The project is a collaboration between CWI, KB, VU Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology. The PhD student will be co-hosted at CWI and the KB, and will become part of the Cultural AI ICAI Lab.
  • Call for Papers "Artificial Intelligence and the Human – Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction" Submission Deadline 20 September 2021H-Net
    Current debates on artificial intelligence often conflate the realities of AI technologies with the fictional renditions of what they might one day become. They are said to be able to learn, make autonomous decisions or process information much faster than humans, which raises hopes and fears alike. What if these useful technologies will one day develop their own intentions that run contrary to those of humans? The line between science and fiction is becoming increasingly blurry: what is already a fact, what is still only imagination; and is it even possible to make this clear-cut distinction? Innovation and development goals in the field of AI are inspired by popular culture, such as its portrayal in literature, comics, film or television. At the same time, images of these technologies drive discussions and set particular priorities in politics, business, journalism, religion, civil society, ethics or research. Fictions, potentials and scenarios inform a society about the hopes, risks, solutions and expectations associated with new technologies. But what is more, the discourses on AI, robots and intelligent, even sentient machines are nothing short of a mirror of the human condition: they renew fundamental questions on concepts such as consciousness, free will and autonomy or the ways we humans think, act and feel. Imaginations about the human and technologies are far from universal, they are culturally specific. This is why a cross-cultural comparison is crucial for better understanding the relationship between AI and the human and how they are mutually constructed by uncovering those aspects that are regarded as natural, normal or given. Focusing on concepts, representations and narratives from different cultures, the conference aims to address two axes of comparison that help us make sense of the diverse realities of artificial intelligence and the ideas of what is human: Science and fiction, East Asia and the West. Papers are invited on the following topics (among others): - Which meanings and functions are ascribed to AI technologies and robots? - How is science informed by popular discursive images of AI? - Which cultural differences are there concerning the relationship between the natural and the artificial? What are the particular traditions of how to represent the human and its technological surrogates? - What can the different cultural and conceptual histories tell us about our present and future with artificial intelligence?
  • Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference '22 Submission Deadline 4 October CPDP
    The Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference (CPDP) is an annual three-day conference devoted to privacy and data protection. The 15th edition of CPDP will be held on the 26th to 28th of January 2022 in Brussels.* Whilst a number of speakers are specifically invited by the conference, several slots remain open to application through an annual call for papers. This Call for Papers is addressed to all researchers who wish to present their papers at the next CPDP conference. ‍ The submissions are split into two tracks. The first one is dedicated to experienced researchers (i.e. postdoctoral researchers, professors etc.), while the second one welcomes PhD students and other junior researchers. Contributions are welcome from all disciplines with perspectives on the themes of the conference. The dual-track structure of the CPDP2022 Call for Papers aims to meet the increasing interest of researchers – from all levels and from multiple disciplines – in CPDP and their expectations in terms of academic feedback and exchange.**
  • 72nd annual conference ICA Submission Deadline 5 November 2021ICA
    The ICA 2022 conference theme One World, One Network‽ invites reimagining communication scholarship on globalization and networks. The use of the interrobang glyph - a superposition of the exclamation and question punctuation marks – seeks to simultaneously celebrate and problematize the “one-ness” in the theme. Arguably nothing celebrates the “one-ness” of the world more than our existential commitment to the sustainability of our planet. Indeed, the blue marble photograph of Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972 is one of the most reproduced images in history. In other areas, “One World” remains a contested slogan. Marshall McLuhan invoked visions of a “global village” in the 1960s. A 1980 UNESCO report titled “Many Voices, One World” introduced the phrase “New World Information and Communication Order” to recommend changes to address inequities in global media representations. The proliferation of the Internet, social media, and mobile technologies since the turn of the 21st century has generated a robust debate on the promises and perils of globalization. Communication scholars have also interrogated the “one-ness” of networks among individuals, families, children, organizations, communities, cultures, media systems, and nation-states, among others. More recently, scholars have explored the communicative implications of networks in the human brain as well as networks of humans and autonomous agents (robots, AI). Networks offer evocative metaphors, theories, and analytical tools to help us understand communication processes and structures that undergird a wide range of domains. Communication scholars have deployed network approaches to understand education, healthcare, sustainability, policy making, as well as work and organization. They have probed the interplay between networks and journalism, media governance, popular culture, visual representations and online gaming. And, they have explored how networks enable and undermine social support, social justice, and social movements. Networks also offer us a lens to problematize - and address - issues such as the geo-political fragmentation of the Internet (“Splinternet”), cyberattacks, disinformation, exclusion, extremism, hate, marginalization, oppression, polarization, and racism. In addition to helping us reimagine our engagement with globalization and networks, advances in technologies are spurring new computational modes of intellectual inquiry alongside more established empirical, interpretive, discursive, rhetorical, and critical approaches. The theme invites research, reflection, and critique of the “One World, One Network‽” discourse in communication studies
  • ELLIS PhD Program: Call for applications Deadline 15 November 2021ELLIS Society
    The ELLIS PhD program is a key element of the ELLIS initiative and its goal is to foster and educate the best talent in machine learning and related research areas by pairing outstanding students with leading academic and industrial researchers in Europe. The program also offers a variety of networking and training activities, including summer schools and workshops. Each PhD student is co-supervised by one ELLIS fellow/scholar/unit faculty and one ELLIS fellow/scholar/member based in different European countries, and conducts an exchange of at least 6 months with the international advisor during their degree. One of the advisors may also come from industry, in which case the student will collaborate closely with the industry partner, and spend min. 6 months conducting research at the industrial lab. Research areas include (but are not limited to) the following machine learning-driven research fields: Machine Learning Algorithms Machine Learning Theory Optimization Deep Learning Interactive and Online Learning Reinforcement Learning and Control Computer Vision Computer Graphics Robotics Human Computer Interaction Natural Language Processing Causality Interpretability and Fairness Robust and Trustworthy Machine Learning Quantum and Physics-based Machine Learning Symbolic Machine Learning Computational Neuroscience Earth and Climate Sciences Bioinformatics Health Interested candidates should apply online through the ELLIS application portal.
  • 2nd IViR "Science Fiction & Information Law" short story competition Deadline 30 November 2021Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam
    To give words to the future of technology, mankind and of law, IViR is holding the second IViR Science Fiction & Information Law writing competition. We welcome short stories (maximum 10,000 words) that reflect on our automated future, where algorithms, AI and virtual agents have become part of our everyday reality. How will AI and automation write our news, predict our careers and re-invent concepts such as justice, art, property, health, love and happiness? What will such a reality look like, how can we imagine society, its institutions and regulations? Will there be a role for law at all, will it give us or AI new rights, or will governments surrender to the superior expertise of tech companies and quantum computers? And after having lived through an entire year of doom and pandemics, are there any hopeful scenarios we can imagine in co-existence with technology? The best essays will be awarded the IViR Science Fiction & Information Law Award by an independent jury (including, among others, Malka Older, Ryan Calo, Wolfgang Schulz). The winning authors will be invited to Amsterdam for a symposium and a grand dinner. At this public symposium the essays and the ideas in the essays will be introduced to an audience of academics and non-academics, kicking off a lively discussion about how they can inspire our thinking about a future society with AI, but also regulatory projects, such as the pending AI regulation. Together, these contributions will be published in the form of a special issue in a dedicated open access online journal.