[CogSci] 1.5-year post-doc position in the ethics of open-ended learning in robotics and AI, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

[Mehdi Khamassi]

*Call for application: *1.5-year post-doc position in the ethics of 
open-ended learning in robotics and AI, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

*Context: *The PILLAR-Robots European project (https://pillar-robots.eu) 
aims at developing a new generation of robots endowed with a higher 
level of autonomy, that are able to determine their own goals and 
establish their own strategies, creatively building on the experience 
acquired during their lifetime to fulfil the requests of their human 
designers/users in real-life application use-cases. To do so, it aims to 
implement a new theoretical extension of the reinforcement learning 
formalism, called the purpose framework*, which constitutes a 
domain-independent abstraction of a set of goals that expresses what the 
designer/user wants from the robot. This enables us to constraint 
robots’ autonomous exploration and learning to (1) focus on 
task-relevant objects and parts of the environment, and to (2) avoid 
reaching particular states of the environment or acting in ways that 
misalign with humans’ objectives, preferences and values.

* Baldassarre, G., Duro, R. J., Cartoni, E., Khamassi, M., Romero, A., & 
Santucci, V. G. (2024). Purpose for Open-Ended Learning Robots: A 
Computational Taxonomy, Definition, and Operationalisation. arXiv 
preprint arXiv:2403.02514.

*Location and environment: *The post-doc position will be located in the 
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR, 
http://www.isir.upmc.fr), Paris, France. ISIR belongs to Sorbonne 
Université, CNRS and INSERM, and is located in the center of Paris, thus 
at walking distance from Seine River, from other academic institutions 
(La Sorbonne, Collège de France, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Ecole 
Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Cité, Hôpital la Pitié 
Salpêtrière), and from famous monuments (Notre Dame, Conciergerie, 
Panthéon, Théâtre du Châtelet, Institut du Monde Arabe). Speaking or 
understanding French is not required. This work will be done in close 
collaborations with philosophers, engineers and computational 
neuroscientists of the PILLAR-Robots European consortium.

*Missions: *The post-doc work will investigate possibilities of 
alignment and misalignement in such purposeful open-ended learning 
robots. In particular, research shall be done on how the combination of 
PILLAR’s robot motivational engine relying on the purpose framework with 
large language models (LLMs) can facilitate alignment, and under which 
conditions. Explainability, trust and efficient human-robot coordination 
will be evaluated in a set of real-world scenarios, corresponding to the 
project's three use cases: a warehouse scenario, an agricultural 
robotics scenario and an edutainment scenario. An ethical analysis will 
be carried out by consulting consortium members on all three scenarios.

*Required profile: *We are looking for highly motivated candidates with 
a strong academic record. An excellent background is expected in machine 
learning, AI, cognitive robotics or computational neuroscience. 
Significant experience in robot cognitive architectures, AI alignment, 
LLMs, or computational modeling for neuroscience or psychology will be 
appreciated. Prior knowledge in philosophy of mind and moral philosophy 
will be a plus. Eligibility: PhD degree in a quantitative discipline. 
There is no nationality or age criteria.

*Required skills: *Mastery of reinforcement learning and game theory, 
very good level in applied maths, and advanced programming skills in 
modern C++ and python are required. Very good level of English (written, 
spoken).

-- 
Mehdi Khamassi, PhD, HDR
Research director (DR2), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Sorbonne Université
ISIR - BC 173, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
phone: +33 6 50 76 44 92
email:mehdi.khamassi at sorbonne-universite.fr
https://pages2.isir.upmc.fr/mkhamassi/

Co-director of the master's program in cognitive science (https://cog-sup.fr)
Sorbonne Université / Université Paris Cité

Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
https://www.iccs.gr/en/?noredirect=en_US
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