Projects
Interrelations and trust in the age of AI
PhD candidate: Dmitry Muravyov
Daily supervisor: Olya Kudina
Co-supervisor: Nazli Cila
Promotor: Sabine Roeser
In this project, Dmitry addresses how synthetic media, such as voice synthesis or deepfakes, shape human interrelations and trust. He is interested in researching how the proliferation of synthetic media is inducing changes in ethically and politically significant categories such as the face, authenticity, and evidence. As part of the project, Dmitry aims to propose media literacy strategies that account for the changing meanings of these notions in society. In doing so, the project interrogates how synthetic media can co-exist with democratic institutions.
Participating in algorithms: the politics of social media feeds
PhD candidate: Jordi Viader Guerrero
Daily supervisor: Olya Kudina
Co-supervisor: Nazli Cila
Promotor: Ibo van de Poel
Combining media and visual theory, political philosophy, and new media research practices, Jordi’s research is concerned with the political ontology of digital technologies. More specifically, his project will inquire about novel modes of political agency and subjectivation mediated by algorithmically-curated social media feeds. Parting from the premise that participation in contemporary democracies is a social relation mediated by a plurality of technologies, this research project also has the objective to propose design frameworks and interventions to reframe interactions with algorithmically-curated feeds as democratic participation.
Developing the care-ethics approach for the design of AI-driven digital phenotyping in psychiatry
PhD candidate: Karin Bogdanova
Daily supervisor: Nazli Cila
Co-supervisor: Olya Kudina
Promotor: Elisa Giaccardi
In this PhD project, Karin attempts to demonstrate how the pursuit of efficiency, personalisation, and fast-paced innovation present in the digital mental health field can lead to significant ethical concerns and reinvigorated unequal power relations within psychiatry. In particular, to offset the prioritisation of positivistic, formalistic, and micro-managerial approaches to the diagnosis of disorders, Karin proposes the development and application of the ethics of care framework. Coupled with other critical approaches, this PhD would provide a reframed and reformulated vision and practice of digital phenotyping from an interdisciplinary perspective of philosophy, design, and anthropology. In order to do so, methods such as discourse analysis, interviews, design ethnography, and participatory prototyping will be employed. Thus, key themes that will be investigated include:
- value conflicts embedded into the design of digital phenotyping technologies;
- construction of novel subjectivities and expertise;
- inclusion of social and cultural pluralism regarding expressions and experiences of health into AI design.
Designing community-led (design) practices for the democratisation of AI systems in public spaces/sectors
PhD candidate: Open vacancy
Daily supervisor: Nazli Cila
Co-supervisor: Olya Kudina
Promotor: Pieter Desmet
This research project addresses modalities of “critical” design practices to transform/undermine hegemonic power knowledge structures inscribed in AI systems in the public space/spheres—assuming the design disciplines need to change from within to enable critical engagement and democratisation of AI systems. The goal of this research is to explore participation (community-led design, participatory design, etc.) and alternative imaginaries (e.g., speculative design, diverse economies/iceberg diagrams, etc.) to enable transparency, inclusivity, and critical engagement with AI systems. Furthermore, this research articulates alternatives to common design practices,—that many decolonial and feminist design scholars believe too often reproduce the totalizing epistemology of modernity and its inherent exclusionary power structures and knowledge production,—while simultaneously scrutinising the limits of their “critical” ability.
Adversarial Machine Learning for Democracy and Privacy
PhD candidate: Syafira Fitri Auliya
Daily supervisor: Olya Kudina
Co-supervisor: Aaron Ding
Promotor: Ibo van de Poel
Syafira’s project is on the interrelation between privacy, democracy, and AI. She suggests that AI is a double-edged sword, and the biggest social cost of AI possibly is the erosion of trust in democracy. Meanwhile, privacy is the prerequisite of democracy, as well as its sub-values that becomes at risk in the age of AI. With this project, Syafira wants to shed light on how we talk about AI and have a more positive outlook on the potential of AI when the values of democracy and privacy are considered. She proposes the use of adversarial machine learning to 'fool' other malicious AI systems to facilitate privacy of decision-making online. She is especially exploring the conceptual, empirical, and technical features of AI to ensure voters' privacy during the deliberation processes online that are often AI-mediated.