Biography
Fourth-year doctoral candidate in computer science at the University of Oxford. Former student researcher at Google leading a project on Large Language Model (LLM) evaluation. Research fellow at Stellenbosch University’s Unit for the Ethics of Technology.
Rare multi-disciplinary expertise across STEM (computer science), the humanities (philosophy, linguistics, practical ethics), the social sciences (quantitative and qualitative research, social anthropology), and interdisciplinary research areas (cognitive science, HCI, responsible innovation, computational linguistics).
My name rhymes with geezer.
Interests
- Human-centred AI
- Foundation model ethics and evaluation
- Cognitive/computational linguistics
- Philosophy of language and cognition
- The ethics of interaction/behavioural design
- Wellbeing-supportive technologies
Education
D.Phil. in Computer Science
University of Oxford
M.A. by Thesis in Philosophy (focus on Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics), 2020
Stellenbosch University
B.A. Hons. in Philosophy, 2019
Stellenbosch University
B.A. in Humanities (focus on Philosophy, Social Anthropology, Art History), 2018
North-West University
Recent Publications
(2024).
The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants.
Google DeepMind.
(2024).
Designing for Sustained Motivation: A Review of Self-Determination Theory in Behaviour Change Technologies.
Accepted for review at Interacting with Computers: Special Issue on Self-Determination Theory in HCI. arXiv:2402.00121 [cs.HC].
(2024).
I finally felt I had the tools to control these urges': Empowering Students to Achieve Their Device Use Goals With the Reduce Digital Distraction Workshop.
To appear in Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA. 11-16 May 2024.
(2024).
What Makes for a 'Good' Social Actor? Using Respect as a Lens to Evaluate Interactions with Language Agents.
Under review at Minds and Machines. arXiv:2401.09082 [cs.CL].
(2024).
Computers as Bad Social Actors: Dark and Anti-Patterns in Interfaces that Act Socially.
To appear in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW). San José, Costa Rica. November 9-13, 2024.
Work & Organisational Experience
Student Researcher
I worked for three months as a student researcher in the Cerebra team at Google. I led a project critically evaluating current alignment approaches and frameworks for Large Language Models (LLMs), and proposed a novel ethical framework centred on duties of respectful treatment in interaction.
Leader of Masterclass in Computer Science
I designed a Royal Institution Masterclass on Dark Patterns in interaction design for year 11 students, which I lead annually at the University of Oxford.
Graduate Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant
I worked as an RA for the EPSRC-funded RoboTIPS project taking a Responsible Innovation approach to the research and development of social robots. I also helped teach two Software Engineering courses (Interaction Design, Requirements Engineering) and two Computer Science courses (Ethical Computing in Practice, Ethics and Responsible Innovation).
Co-founder of RTI Student Network
The RTI is an international centre of excellence on responsible technology. I co-founded its international student network connecting researchers interested in topics related to responsible innovation. I help to organise reading groups, expert panel discussions, and work-in-progress seminars.
Tutor & Teaching Assistant
I helped administer two Philosophy courses, gave frequent tutorials for first years and led a weekly seminar for 80 third-years.
Teaching Assistant & Seminar Leader
I helped administer several Philosophy and History of Art courses and led weekly seminars.
Recent & Upcoming Talks
Join us for a presentation by PhD candidate and fellow Lize Alberts (University of Oxford, United Kingdom and Stellenbosch University, South Africa) on her recent paper, “Computers as Bad Social Actors - Dark Patterns and Anti-Patterns in Interfaces that Act Socially.” Lize’s research explores dynamics between people and AI and human-centered computing, and will present this work at CSCW 2024 (Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing). This is the first in our seminar series with a presentation and discussion at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, psychology, and computer science. This event will be hybrid. Register at https://cglink.me/2gi/r1941267
Contact
- You can reach me at lize (dot) alberts @ cs.ox.ac.uk
- Department of Computer Science, Wolfson Building, 7 Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QG