Postdoc in Foundations for Emergent Deception in Human-AI Interaction (Machine Learning, NLP, Behavioural Psychology) University of Copenhagen in Denmark

University of Copenhagen is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for the project DeceptionWeb: Foundations for Emergent Deception in Human-AI Interaction, a collaboration led by Pepa Atanasova (Department of Computer Science / DIKU), Ingo Zettler (Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science, SODAS, and Department of Psychology), and Egor Starkov (Department of Economics).

The postdoc will work at the interface of machine learning, behavioural psychology, natural language processing, LLM security, and explainable AI. The project studies how deceptive interactions can emerge in human-AI systems, how they can be detected, and how they may be mitigated. The role includes contributing to controlled human-AI interaction experiments, building computational evaluation infrastructure, and developing interpretability-based detection methods for a joint oversight framework.

The successful candidate will join the CopeNLU group and SODAS at the University of Copenhagen. The environment is described as collaborative and internationally leading in NLP, with strong links to interdisciplinary social data science research. The position also includes a smaller amount of teaching and supervision.

Eligibility: applicants should hold a PhD degree or equivalent in Computer Science or a related field and have strong written and oral English skills. The assessment will consider publications and relevant work experience. Experience in interdisciplinary projects, experimental research with human participants, and/or cognitive, personality, or social psychology is considered an advantage.

Funding and terms: the postdoc is funded by a UCPH Convergence Grant and is offered for 1 year and 9 months. Salary starts at 39,900 DKK/month (approx. 5,300 EUR, August 2026 level), plus pension contributions and possible supplements depending on qualifications.

Deadline: applications must be submitted by 5 July 2026, 23:59 GMT+1. The expected start date is 1 October 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

How to apply: submit the application in English through the university portal. Include a cover letter, research plan, CV, diplomas, complete publication list, three relevant papers, and contact details for three references.