Postdoc in AI, Ethics, Public

Position title:

Postdoc

Salary range:
The UC postdoc salary scales set the minimum pay determined by experience level  the following table(s) for the current salary scale(s) for this position: https://(Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). (PDF file) (link is external). A reasonable estimate for this position is $69,000–$76,502.

The UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public (the Kavli Center) is a multi-disciplinary academic center that aims to break down the barriers that separate the sciences, humanities, and the public from each other; providing an inclusive, multi-disciplinary framework for understanding the ethical implications of science and technology, training the next generation, and helping scientific advances be answerable to fundamental human interests.

The center comprises three elements: a "hub," representing the core activities of the center, where all affiliates come together to address fundamental ethical questions across disciplinary boundaries; “spokes” linking these activities to specific scientific disciplines; and an “axle” connecting the center with the larger society it sits within. Current spoke sciences focus on genome editing, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience. These areas have enormous potential to benefit humanity but also raise questions of practical and existential ethical significance and may affect distinct communities differently.

Bringing these three scientific fields together under one center enables the identification of shared challenges and the translation of solutions and lessons learned from one to another. Read more about the Kavli Center here: -vision

The Kavli Center collaborates with many departments and institutes on campus to provide fellows with access to leading researchers and scholars in their fields. Read more about our structure and core faculty here: -organizations

The flagship program of the Kavli Center is our Graduate and Postdoc Fellowship Program. Discoveries in science and technology are moving quickly from basic research to real-world applications, sometimes with societal-scale impact, and scientists are increasingly encountering challenges that fall outside their expertise. We need a new kind of training that prepares scientists to confront the current and future ethical challenges of their fields, and that creates social scientists, philosophers, journalists, and policymakers who are able to work with scientists and diverse communities to ensure that the applications of scientific discoveries protect and advance fundamental human interests.

The center is entering its second cohort of fellows. The successful applicant for this position will join ongoing and new postdoc and graduate fellows from fields such as the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and professional fields to work at the center, bridge disciplinary and sector boundaries, and be a part of a new kind of community. Depending on the postdoc’s specific research objectives and methods, Professor Jodi Halpern, and/or Professor Stuart Russel, Co-Directors of the Kavli Center, will serve as the faculty supervisor for the postdoctoral scholar.

The Kavli Center is seeking to offer one position. While the center expects to fully fund one position, applicants with existing fellowships or grants are welcome to apply.

As artificial intelligence is coming of age, it promises to bring new and exciting capabilities that could improve people’s lives yet also poses serious challenges. These challenges require attending to ethics and considering innovative regulation and governance at all levels. This postdoctoral fellow will work to identify and address these questions and challenges by breaking down the barriers between computer scientists, ethicists, experts in law, policy, or business, and the public.

While a successful applicant may propose any number of research projects that address this broad area, we are…