Overview
Are you interested in making AI Systems more trustworthy? Join our team as a 4-year full-time PhD candidate and work with research related to “Trustworthy Conversational AI Agents for Mental Health”!
You will work closely with Dr. Jiahuan Pei, Dr. Min Chen, Prof. Dr. Koen Hindriks, and Prof. Dr. Herbert Bos, on research embedded in [Social AI Group] (https://www.socialai.nl/) and [VUSec Group] (https://www.vusec.net/) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam).
AI-powered chatbots have emerged as promising tools for scalable, accessible, and cost-effective healthcare support. However, deploying AI in healthcare presents significant challenges — trustworthiness, reliability, and ethical responsibility remain critical concerns. This exciting PhD opportunity focuses on developing Trustworthy Conversational AI Agents for Mental Health. You will be involved in building AI systems that are not only intelligent but also trustworthy, transparent, and secure in sensitive mental health contexts. Our ultimate goal is to design AI agents that can safely and ethically support individuals facing mental health challenges, making a real difference in society.
Company:
VU Amsterdam
Qualifications:
A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in computer science, artificial intelligence, data science, or a related discipline, with excellent grades. Eagerness to develop trustworthy, ethical, and secure AI systems.
Experience with or enthusiasm for large language models, information retrieval, uncertainty estimation, game theory, privacy-preserving machine learning, AI copyright protection, data auditing, and synthetic data generation. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Proficiency in programming languages such as Python.
Fluency in English (both written and spoken).
Good communication skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a collaborative research team.
Prior experience in research and scientific projects and publications in top-tier AI (e.g., ACL, ICML, NeurIPS, WWW, AAAI, ICLR, ICML, etc.) and security conferences (IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, NDSS, ACM CCS, etc.) are a plus.
Educational level:
Master Degree
About Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam focuses on education, research, and sharing knowledge that's both scientific and guided by strong values.
