PhD in Warm Technology and Care Ethics

The PhD research is on care between humans and artificial agents, e.g., chatbots, and how that can best scale up for the specific context of dementia care. The project thus investigates
1) relations of care, such as care-related roles that agents can take on, e.g., caring for people who have dementia and their caregivers;
2) conversational AI, i.e., designing targeted warm care agents in a scalable manner;
3) responsible engineering on the ethics of human-agent interactions concerning vulnerable groups.

Regarding research, we are interested in fusing together 'warm technology', i.e., empowering people through the design of technology, with conversational AI and responsible engineering that stems from care ethics. In terms of policy recommendations, the project aims to articulate responsible engineering practices for future AI projects in dementia care and beyond.

Figure 1: The relations between stakeholders, companies, and organizations involved.

To pursue the above research initiatives, the project aligns with various organizations, namely the Expertise Center Dementia & Technology (ECDT) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and their partner care organizations, Alzheimer Nederland, SARA robotics, Philips, and Tinybots (see Figure 1). The project of four years thus will be coordinated between different partners to fulfill the technical and ethical components. To do so, you will be situated in the Eindhoven Engine ecosystem, which is located on campus.