Postdoctoral Researcher (M/F/DIV) in Deep Learning and Creativity

The Center for Humans and Machines (CHM) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin conducts interdisciplinary science to understand, anticipate, and shape major disruptions from digital media and artificial intelligence to the way we think, learn, work, play, cooperate, and govern. Our goal is to understand how machines are shaping human society today and how they may continue to shape it in the future. The center is comprised of an interdisciplinary, international, and diverse group of scholars and a science support team.

To complement this team, we are looking to fill up to two (2) positions as

• The position is limited to two years, with the possibility of extension for a third year.
• Starting date is April 1^st, 2023, or later.
• We seek to hire postdoctoral researchers to work on ambitious, high-impact research on artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity. The research will involve building generative AI models, which may also interact with humans, in the context of creative expression and exploration (e.g., in visual art, literature, science, design).
• The Projects will be conducted under the supervision of Prof. Iyad Rahwan and may involve collaboration with other colleagues at the center.
• The successful candidate will have no formal teaching requirements. The position will include generous support for computational equipment and compute (e.g., GPU cluster), recruitment of sizable online participant cohorts, travel to conferences and collaborators, and funds for hiring freelance designers and developers to produce bespoke online experiments.

The successful applicant must have the following:

• A PhD in a computational science field (e.g., computer science, computational cognitive science, computational social science, physics, applied mathematics, or related)
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-impact research, as evidenced by a strong publication record in top publications in computer science or physics
• Strong technical skills in at least one area in artificial intelligence, especially deep learning, as applied to natural language processing, computer vision, or reinforcement learning
• Advanced programming skills and proficiency with deep learning libraries (e.g., TensorFlow or PyTorch)
• A commitment to following the best methodological practices in computer and behavioral sciences, such as pre-registration of studies, sharing of well-documented computer code, version control such as Git, writing reproducible research reports, open sharing of data whenever feasible, etc.
• High proficiency in English
• High motivation and ability to work both independently and as part of an (interdisciplinary) team, alongside other computational scientists, but also behavioral scientists; ability to coordinate feedback from teams of senior collaborators
• Willingness to present and communicate research in internal and external seminars and conferences

• Experience in designing and conducting behavioral or economic experiments in the lab or online via platforms such as Prolific or Amazon Mechanical Turk and/or recruitment of panels
• Experience designing or building interactive experimental tools (e.g., web-based games)
• Demonstrated experience with reinforcement learning and Markov decision processes
• Demonstrated experience with applying AI in creative domains, such as using large language models in creative writing or using diffusion models in visual art

• An interesting position at the internationally renowned Center for Humans and Machines
• Working in a young multidisciplinary team with colleagues from experimental psychology, evolutionary anthropology, art, science, economics, computer science, and physics
• Contribution to the multifaceted and impactful research and the opportunity to conduct scientific work related to artificial intelligence, ethics, and human-machine interaction
• Strong support by our science support team and opportunity to guide and work with research assistants
• Support with public outreach (e.g., social media, print media, or exhibitions)
• Room to develop and realize your ideas
• Possibility to work partly from home office

The Max Planck Society strives for gender and diversity equality. We welcome applications from all backgrounds. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.

To apply, please address a

• statement of research interests,
• a CV without a photo,
• a copy of relevant certificates,
• (p)reprints of three publications lead by the applicant,
• and a list of four referees.

to: Prof. Dr. Iyad Rahwan, MPI for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin. Please submit all documents in ONE FILE, by clicking the 'Apply' button.

Applications will be evaluated on a first-come-first-served basis and will continue to be received until February 22^nd, 2023 or until the positions are filled.

The data protection declaration for the processing of personal data within the scope of your application can be found here: 

https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/1589569/en_infos_bewerbung.pdf.