Meet our PhDs in their own words

Michaël Grauwde

WP1 - Transdisciplinary Innovation: An Inclusive, Iterative and Deliberative Approach to Technology Development

Michaël Grauwde’s focus is on the development of a value-based conversational agent to facilitate value-based deliberation between differing stakeholders. The role of this conversational agent is that it can facilitate deliberative processes within ELSA-workshops. An important factor in this research is the ability for the conversational agent through the interactions with the users to be able to help participants identify, monitor, balance, and verbalise their different values and concerns when it comes to public safety scenarios. The goal of the conversational agent is to be developed with input from the stakeholders and allow value-based reflection and deliberation between the differing stakeholders. Through his development of the conversational agent in a trustworthy manner, he works together with his colleagues in the AI MAPS ELSA group towards the development of trustworthy AI-solutions in the public safety context.  

Marlon Kruizinga

WP2 - Empirical-Ethical Aspects of AI applications in Multi-Agency Public Safety Issues

As a new technology which increases and transforms practical possibilities wherever it is used, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bound to significantly affect the lives and wellbeing of many people, especially in the context of public safety. Even when given only an advisory or ‘toolbox’ function, systems like facial recognition or violence detection software will have a significant role in the decision-making processes behind policing. Meanwhile other AI systems, like those curating our social media experiences, may actually drive polarization processes. Such polarization in turn may come to endanger public safety. Therefore it would seem essential to study the actual and potential effects of AI on public safety, as well as on human lives more generally when used to protect public safety. 

Yet questions about how our lives are affected by new technologies are practically inconclusive without accompanying questions about how our lives ought to be, how we ought to be treated, etc. Here I refer to ethics, or to those normative values and principles which are supposed to govern our interactions and decisions in human society. My aim as a researcher is then to conduct an ethical investigation into AI in the context of public safety. To figure out how it affects us, how it could- and how we believe it should affect us. To this end I plan to study AI technologies both empirically and theoretically, analyzing the actual beliefs and concerns of all stakeholder groups in particular use-cases. Together with stakeholders I will construct first a framework for thinking through ethical challenges/concerns, and second a practical roadmap for ethically developing and deploying AI in public safety. 

My Research Question: What major ethical aspects and challenges arise among societal stakeholders concerning the application of AI for public safety? And, subsequently, how can solutions to these challenges be developed, agreed upon and operationalized by all stakeholder parties in any given context?

Nanou van Iersel

WP3 - AI and the Accountability Divide – Safety and Security in the New World of AI

Nanou van Iersel is a PhD Candidate in AI MAPS at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her contribution to AI MAPS’ ELSA Lab forms the ‘L’ in ELSA: a legal perspective on responsible AI in public safety. Supervised by prof. dr. Evert Stamhuis and dr. Francien Dechesne, she researches the impact of AI on governance structures and accountability mechanisms within public organizations.

Through her master’s degree in Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society, she has affiliation with ethics and digital technologies. Before joining AI MAPS, Nanou has worked at Leiden Law School as a researcher and teacher in socio-legal studies. Her PhD research is located on the intersection of law, technology, and ethics, and as such reflects her background.

Majsa Storbeck

WP4 - AI and Surveillance Experiences in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods with Low-Levels of Trust

I am Majsa Storbeck, an interdisciplinary researcher with a diverse academic background in political science, international relations, international law, and criminology. In my research, I delve into the dynamic interplay between the watchers and being watched, particularly in relation to their respective surveillance experiences. Through the adoption of a qualitative participatory research design and employing the case study approach, my goal is to provide comprehensive insights into the diverse and wide range of surveillance experiences. This includes examining the perspectives of various stakeholders, such as security professionals (police officers, private security providers, municipality officials), as well as the public (protestors, journalists, sympathizers, or counter-protestors), and investigating the potential role of AI and technology in these dynamics. To achieve this, my research methodology involves conducting systematic literature reviews to inform a theoretical paper on surveillance experiences, followed by the implementation of qualitative research methods like semi-structured interviews, observations, and focus groups in empirical case studies following the AI MAPS set-up. Adhering to the principles of the ELSA Lab methodology, my research will actively engage stakeholders and foster value-based reflections, emphasizing the co-creation of knowledge. Through this interdisciplinary and participatory approach, my aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of surveillance dynamics and their broader implications for individuals and society within the human-centered framework of the AI MAPS project.

Meet our AI MAPS experts.