Lize Alberts

I am an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, working in the AI & Behaviour group in the Department of Computer Science. I am affiliated with the Netherlands’ Hybrid Intelligence Centre, supervising PhD research on personalising LLM dialogue agents for effective behavioural support. I am also a research associate at the Unit for the Ethics of Technology at Stellenbosch University, and an associate editor of the upcoming Cambridge University Press (CUP) book series on AI Ethics & Society.

I have a strong interdisciplinary background spanning human-centered AI, computational linguistics, HCI, behavioural psychology, software engineering, philosophy, social anthropology, and cognitive science. I have worked at Google as a student researcher on contextualising the alignment of social AI agents, contributing foundational research to the growing area of research now termed socioaffective alignment. A seminal paper from my doctorate characterising social dark patterns investigated early examples of emotional manipulation by digital social agents and their effects on users.

I obtained my DPhil in Computer Science at the University of Oxford, focusing on the ethics of human-AI social interaction. My master’s by thesis in philosophy focused on supporting multi-modal grounded language learning in AI, drawing from 4E/embodied cognition theories in cognitive science. I have published in several top-rated journals, collaborating with industry as well as universities from across the world.

As a part of my current role, I co-designed and teach a novel interdisciplinary course on the cognitive and environmental factors that shape human behaviour; methods and tools for computationally modelling these factors, and the responsible application of knowledge of human cognition and behaviour in the design of AI and computing systems.

More information about my projects, background and mission can be found on my CV and below. Find my publications on my Google Scholar page.