Funded PhD Student Position: Discourse Analysis of Trustworthy AI in Business

The Trustworthy AI Lab at Ontario Tech University has an opening for a funded 4-year PhD position to work on the critical discourse analysis of trustworthy AI in business, society, and academia.

The position will be co-supervised by Dr Peter Lewis, Canada Research Chair in Trustworthy AI and by Dr Tanner Mirrlees, Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies. A funding package is available comprising a Graduate Research Assistantship and Teaching Assistantship.

We are looking for a collaborative researcher with an interdisciplinary and open mindset. Candidates should have a background in discourse analysis and an interest in applying this to complex technology discourse, such as corporate documentation, tech journalism, and marketing material. The aim of the project is to conduct a discourse analysis on the use of the phrase ’trustworthy AI’ and related language in business. Following Breeze (2013), this includes examining business communication practices from a discourse perspective, looking in detail at the ways in which corporations around the world communicate with individuals, with other collective entities and with the world at large. In this case, this will be analyzed in the context of trust theory, in particular Dwyer’s (2011) ’trust enforcement vs trust empowerment’ distinction, and Lewis & Marsh’s (2022) model for analyzing the trustworthiness of AI systems and other technologies.

The candidate will be enrolled on the PhD Cybersecurity program, and must meet the entry requirements for that program.

For a discussion about the position and to initiate the application process, please email Peter Lewis or Tanner Mirrlees.

References:

Breeze, Ruth (2013). Corporate Discourse. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Dwyer, Natasha (2011) Traces of digital trust : an interactive design perspective. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Lewis, Peter, and Marsh, Stephen, What is it like to trust a rock? A functionalist perspective on trust and trustworthiness in artificial intelligence, Cognitive Systems Research, Volume 72, 2022.