Artificial Intelligence, multiagent systems, social computation, collective intelligence, human-friendly AI

2004 PhD in Computer Science, Technical University of Munich
1999 Diploma in Computer Science, University of Saarbrueken

I am Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the School of Informatics, Deputy Vice Principal of Research, and Director of the Bayes Centre at the University of Edinburgh. My academic research interests are mainly in multiagent systems, i.e. systems where either artificial or human agents collaborate or compete with each other. In my work, I use an eclectic mix of AI techniques (from knowledge-based to game-theoretic and machine learning based techniques) and collaborate extensively with social scientists, human factors experts and users of real-world systems. I have published around 100 articles and been involved in projects that have received over £18m of external funding, leading a group that has hosted over 40 people.

Since around 2014, the focus of my work has been on ethical AI, where I develop architectures and algorithms that support transparency, accountability, fairness, and diversity-awareness. While much of the debate around the ethical risks of AI can be rather speculative, I am most interested in making sure the concrete computational mechanisms used by AI-driven systems are aligned with human values. In a multiagent systems context, this mostly means creating mechanisms to elicit users' and stakeholders' views and translate them into concrete constraints and optimisation criteria for algorithms and design principles for algorithms.

I have previously done extensive research in agent communication, multiagent planning, argumentation systems, multiagent learning, social reasoning, and on norms, trust and reputation