Team

Jobs

6 postdoctoral fellowships

The ERC project AIMODELS invites expressions of interest for six postdoctoral fellowships (1-3 years) in the history, philosophy, and critical studies of artificial intelligence, including natural and cognitive science epistemology, philosophy of language, psychoanalysis, semiotics, literary studies, psychology of learning, and critical pedagogy. One fellowship supports research in the historical epistemology of the intellectual world of early AI, connectionism, and psychometrics. Letters of interest (a cover letter, CV, and a short project description) should be submitted to Prof. Matteo Pasquinelli at matteo.pasquinelli@unive.it at the earliest convenience (call open)

1 postdoc fellowship: a public call is announced to award 1 postdoc fellowship (12 months renewable) titled "Models of Collective Intelligence". The expected starting date is approximately February 1st, 2025. The research fellowship amounts to Euro 24,450.00 per year (gross to the recipient). The research fellow will work closely with the PI, Prof. Matteo Pasquinelli, and in detail:

  1. conducting research on the history and epistemology of the models of collective intelligence;
  2. compiling, under the PI's supervision, a database of scientific literature;
  3. co-organizing with the PI an international symposium in English titled "Models of Collective Intelligence";
  4. editing the proceedings of the symposium for an anthology in English.

Call for application [ITA] - Call for application [ENG] (deadine: December 12th 2024 at noon - 12:00 Rome CET)

Three PhD fellowships are available in history, philosophy, and critical studies of artificial intelligence (AI) in the historical context of the definitions of intelligence and mental disability. Two fellowships are open to proposals in the fields of natural and cognitive science epistemology, contemporary philosophy and psychoanalysis, philosophy of language, semiotics, literary studies, translation studies, psychology of learning, and critical pedagogy. One fellowship supports a research of historical epistemology on the intellectual world of early AI, connectionism, and psychometrics. Call for application (deadline: 23 May 2024, call closed)

People

Matteo Pasquinelli

Principal Investigator

Silvia Bellacicco

Project Manager

Paolo Caffoni

External expert
(KIM - HfG Karlsruhe)

Tommaso Guariento

Post-doc research grant holder

Research network

Critical AI Studies Seminar

Students, professors and researchers are welcome to the Critical AI Studies Seminar (bi-weekly schedule). Each session features presentations and discussions of ongoing research, as well as readings and discussions of critical texts. Each seminar lasts approximately 2 hours and is conducted in a hybrid format: in person in Venice and online via Google Meet. To join the group, please send an e-mail to aimodels@unive.it

Topics: this seminar series offers a critical exploration of artificial intelligence, focusing on its historical development and deep connections to the practices of formalizing and measuring labor, language, knowledge, and social relationships. It adopts a critical approach in examining AI and give attention to discrimination based on gender, race, and class, as an ideological product, alongside the evolution of information technologies. Guided by historical epistemology, it delves into the perspective of various disciplines such as political philosophy, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of mind, linguistics, semiotics, and the sociology of labor. Special attention is given to the material tools and practices that have enabled this form of rationality. The goal is to understand AI as an “epistemic object” that bridges the technical development, natural, social, and human sciences. The seminars provide an interdisciplinary space to reflect on how modeling practices shape the relationship between knowledge and power in the contemporary world. This initiative seeks to provide critical tools to analyze AI not just as a technology but as part of a long and complex cultural and political history.