We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team on the EVASAI project (on Engineering Value Awareness in Social AI). The postdoc will focus on modeling theory of mind and developing value-driven reasoning in artificial agents, to enhance negotiations between agents and/or humans. The ideal candidate will contribute to the strategic application of ToM, aiming to simplify negotiation processes and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agent collaboration.

Theory of Mind, or the ability to infer others’ beliefs and intentions, is a cornerstone of human social intelligence. It plays a crucial role in interpreting and predicting actions, facilitating effective social interactions. This project will investigate how AI systems can model others’ mental states, with a particular focus on incorporating values as an additional mental dimension that shapes reasoning and decision-making. By extending existing Theory of Mind frameworks to account for the role of values as key motivational factors, the postdoc will develop computational reasoning mechanisms that enable artificial agents to understand the motivations and intentions of others. This will then be used to implement  argumentation-based negotiation mechanisms that adapt dynamically to others’ values and motivations.

This postdoc will be supported by the Spanish funded project on Engineering Value Awareness in Social AI (EVASAI), which is a collaboration between the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona (IIIA-CSIC, where the PostDoc research will be conducted), the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, and the Unversitat Politècnica de València.