<html><p style="line-height:normal;margin:2.0pt 0cm 0cm;page-break-after:avoid;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>PhD position in Formal Models of Collective Reasoning<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;margin:2.0pt 0cm 0cm;page-break-after:avoid;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT)<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;margin:2.0pt 0cm 0cm;page-break-after:avoid;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Toulouse University<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;margin:2.0pt 0cm 0cm;page-break-after:avoid;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>France<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;margin-bottom:0cm;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"> </p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The PhD thesis will be carried out as part of the TIRIS project entitled “Caring about Others: AI and Psychology Meet to Model and Automate Collective Reasoning” (CaRe), </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">which began in January 2025 and will end in December 2028. The PhD will start in October 2025 and will be funded by a three-year contract, with a gross monthly salary of approximately 2200 €.</span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"> </p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:13.5pt;"><strong>Description of the research project<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The CaRe project focuses on the interdisciplinary study of collective reasoning and its role in decision-making, from the perspectives of artificial intelligence (AI) and psychology. </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">Collective reasoning refers to the multi-dimensional reasoning of human or artificial agents, including the ability to consider others’ minds, engage in team-based reasoning, and </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">take ethical concerns regarding others’ well-being into account. The main objectives of the project are: (i) to formalize collective reasoning using logic, game theory, and social choice theory; </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">(ii) to develop new algorithms that enable artificial conversational agents to reason collectively; and (iii) to evaluate these formal models and algorithms through experiments involving </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">both human-human (H-H) and human-machine (H-M) interaction. The CaRe project aims to support the development of ethical and trustworthy AI systems that promote human well-being.</span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The PhD thesis will focus specifically on the formalization of collective reasoning and the development and implementation of related algorithms in a conversational agent—corresponding to objectives (i) and (ii) of the project. </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The following aspects of collective reasoning will be addressed:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul style="list-style-type:disc;"><li style="line-height:normal;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Reasoning about others’ minds</strong>: agents attribute desires, goals, and preferences to others and take them into account when making decisions or choosing actions.<o:p></o:p></span></p></li><li style="line-height:normal;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Group (or team) reasoning</strong>: agents consider themselves and others as part of a group or community and act to achieve shared goals.<o:p></o:p></span></p></li><li style="line-height:normal;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Ethical reasoning</strong>: agents take ethical norms and values into consideration, focusing on the well-being of others (e.g., fairness, equity, reciprocity) and their expectations (e.g., norms of honesty and promise-keeping).<o:p></o:p></span></p></li></ul><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The PhD will place particular emphasis on formalizing and comparing two types of collective reasoning: one based on sympathy, goal adoption, and group identification ("warm" collective reasoning), </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">and another based on explicit ethical values and the maximization of ethical utility ("cold" collective reasoning).</span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"> </p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:13.5pt;"><strong>Candidate profile</strong></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The ideal candidate should have a strong background in mathematics and some programming experience. A Master’s degree in Logic, Computer Science, or Mathematics is required. </span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">On the theoretical side, familiarity with logic and game theory is expected; on the practical side, experience with Python and functional programming (ideally Haskell) is desirable.</span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"> </p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:13.5pt;"><strong>PhD supervisor<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">The thesis will be supervised by Emiliano Lorini, CNRS Senior Researcher at the Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT). More information is available at: </span><a href="https://www.irit.fr/~Emiliano.Lorini/" target="_new"><span style="color:blue;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">https://www.irit.fr/~Emiliano.Lorini/</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"> </p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:13.5pt;"><strong>How to apply<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">Please send the following documents to </span><a href="mailto:Emiliano.Lorini@irit.fr"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">Emiliano.Lorini@irit.fr</span></a><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type="disc"><li style="line-height:normal;tab-stops:list 36.0pt;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">A detailed CV<o:p></o:p></span></p></li><li style="line-height:normal;tab-stops:list 36.0pt;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">A motivation letter<o:p></o:p></span></p></li><li style="line-height:normal;tab-stops:list 36.0pt;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">Transcripts of your Bachelor's and Master's degrees<o:p></o:p></span></p></li></ul><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;">Including samples of research publications and reference letters is encouraged.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR FULL CONSIDERATION: July 14, 2025<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><br><br> </p></html>