Education Research Current About VU Amsterdam NL
Bachelor's programmes Master's programmes VU for Professionals
Exchange programme VU Amsterdam Summer School Honours Programme Dutch language courses (NT2) Semester in Amsterdam
PhD at VU Amsterdam Featured research Prizes and distinctions
Interdisciplinary research institutes Scientists of VU Amsterdam Research Impact Support Portal Create impact with your research
News Events calendar Moving towards a healthier future
VU UPDATE: Situation in Israel and the Palestinian regions Culture at VU Amsterdam
Practical matters Mission, core values and vision Entrepreneurship on VU Campus
Governance of VU Amsterdam Valorisation and impact Partnering with VU Amsterdam VU Alumni Community Take a look at our vacancies!
Sorry! De informatie die je zoekt, is enkel beschikbaar in het Engels.
This programme is saved in My Study Choice.
Something went wrong with processing the request.
Something went wrong with processing the request.

dr. Lize Alberts

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Artificial intelligence

Assistant Professor, Network Institute

Personal information

Lize has an interdisciplinary background spanning artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, computational linguistics, behavioural psychology, philosophy of mind and language, social anthropology, and cognitive science. Integrating perspectives from these domains, her research focuses primarily on the interface layer, using psychological theory and user studies to determine what it means for interaction and behavioural design to treat people ethically and support them in respectful ways.

She obtained her DPhil in Computer Science from the University of Oxford, focusing on the ethics of human-AI (social) interaction, in which she developed a novel ethical framework centred on the interface layer. Her master’s applied principles from embodied cognition and cognitive linguistics to explore computationally feasible approaches to language grounding and critically assess existing multi-modal grounded language learning approaches in AI.

During her doctorate, Lize worked at Google London as a Student Researcher on contextualising the alignment of social AI agents, laying the groundwork for the field now termed socioaffective alignment, and contributed to a Google DeepMind whitepaper on the ethics of advanced AI assistants.

Research

Lize Alberts is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science. Her research centres on building AI systems that understand and respect users’ capabilities and long-term goals, and support them in person-centred ways that foster autonomy, integration, and enduring self-determination.

She works in the VU's AI & Behaviour lab, and is also affiliated with the Network Institute and Hybrid Intelligence Centre. She holds a research associate position at the Unit for the Ethics of Technology at Stellenbosch University, and is associate editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements book series on AI Ethics & Society, in affiliation with the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence.

Teaching

Lize co-designed and teaches three courses of the VU's BSc Artificial Intelligence programme.

Modelling Human Behaviour integrates perspectives from cognitive science, behavioural psychology, social network analysis, and computational modelling to give first year students a strong interdisciplinary foundation for understanding and modelling human behaviour. It covers the full model development pipeline: from the theoretical and ethical frameworks that underpin why and how we model behaviour, to practical implementation across multiple modelling tools and methods, including agent-based modelling in NetLogo, social network analysis in Python, and behavioural design principles for digital platforms. Students engage critically with the strengths, limitations, and risks of contemporary approaches to predicting and influencing behaviour, and consider the implications of applying these in AI and computing systems.

Research Design for AI guides students through the full research cycle of their final thesis project: formulating research questions, conducting literature reviews, selecting appropriate methodologies, handling data ethically, and communicating findings clearly and critically. The course runs alongside the BSc AI Project, supporting students with the timely and succesful completion of each thesis milestone.

Project Socially Aware Computing is a project-based course in which students conduct independent research to build, analyse, and critically report on an agent-based simulation of a phenomenon involving social interaction in the NetLogo environment.

Ancillary activities
  • Centre for Applied Ethics, Stellenbosch University | Stellenbosch | Research Fellow | 2023-06-01 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily

Quick links

Homepage VU Amsterdam Culture at VU Amsterdam University Library Dashboard

Study

Academic calendar Study Guide Timetable Canvas

Featured

Donate to the VU Fund VU Magazine Ad Valvas Digital accessibility

About VU Amsterdam

Contact with VU Amsterdam Take a look at our vacancies! Faculties VU Amsterdam Divisions VU Amsterdam
Privacy Disclaimer Safety Web Colophon Cookie settings Web Archive

Copyright © VU