Website Eindhoven University of Technology
Job description
Generative AI is disrupting many fields, including communications, education, and academic research. Recently, a number of companies and research organizations have suggested that generative AI could – and perhaps should – be used in healthcare, both to discover new medical technologies and to treat patients. In terms of research, generative AI could identify trends and patterns from a large body of medical research, synthesize the data and make new medical discoveries. In terms of improving healthcare, LLMs have the potential to be integrated into the doctor-patient relationship. They can summarize consultations, provide ongoing medical advice, and independently provide mental health services.
The use of LLM and other types of generative AI in healthcare raises serious ethical issues. The most challenging of these are privacy concerns, but ethical issues also include the ability of these technologies to provide misleading or unreliable information to healthcare practitioners, the emergence of “accountability gaps” in the healthcare system, and issues of social and epistemological justice among diverse patients and users. Some of these ethical challenges are similar to risks in other fields, but the application of generative AI in healthcare may pose different hazards. Unreliable healthcare information can have devastating consequences, which may be amplified if LLMs are not designed with privacy and issues of justice and accountability for the highly sensitive data they handle in mind.
This doctoral program will begin by examining the key ethical challenges of privacy, reliability, justice, and responsibility, showing how these ethical risks can be minimized or mitigated. This will help students develop a new ethical framework outlining how AI can be deployed ethically in a variety of healthcare domains. The candidate may choose to focus on how generative AI can be used in medical research or how LLM can provide new tools for physicians and patients. The candidate will also be responsible for sharing ethical insights with other partners in the MedGPT consortium (see details below). Additionally, an interest in analyzing the use of generative AI in healthcare from a philosophy of science or cross-cultural philosophy perspective would be advantageous, but is not required.
This PhD position is part of the Medicine GPT: Revolutionizing Healthcare through Ethical Artificial Intelligence project (MedGPT). The candidate will be supervised by Matthew J. Dennis (Eindhoven University of Technology), Vlasta Sikimić (Eindhoven University of Technology), and Filippo Santoni de Sio (Eindhoven University of Technology), who will be Polytechnic University’s Philosophy and Ethics Group for acceptance. The candidate will be responsible for working with other stakeholders of the MedGPT project and will be encouraged to collaborate with other researchers in the consortium.
For more information on Philosophy and Ethics at TU/e (P P, please visit: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-sciences/philosophy-ethics.
offer requirements
Master’s degree (or equivalent university degree) in Philosophy or a related discipline.
A research-oriented and impact-oriented attitude.
Ability to work as part of a team of researchers from different disciplines working on similar topics.
Interest in working with government, policy and industry stakeholders.
Fluency in spoken and written English.
We particularly welcome applications from candidates from groups traditionally underrepresented in academia, including but not limited to women and ethnic minorities.
offer benefits
A rewarding career in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary environment and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you
Full-time employment for four years, with a mid-term evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. 10% of your working time is dedicated to teaching duties.
Salary and benefits (e.g., pension plan, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Dutch Universities Collective Labor Agreement, level P (minimum €2,901, maximum €3,707).
8.3% year-end bonus and 8% annual leave pay.
High-quality training programs and other support to help you develop into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e, we encourage you to learn on your own.
State-of-the-art technical infrastructure, on-campus nursery and sports facilities.
Subsidized commuting, work-from-home and internet costs.
Employee immigration team and tax compensation program for international candidates (30% facilitation).