Joel Wester – Ph.D. Fellow

Joel Wester, PhD Fellow
Human-Computer Interaction
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

About

My name is Joel, and I am a PhD Fellow in the Human Centered Computing research group. With a background in cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy, I bring a multifaceted viewpoint to human-AI interactions.

I’m primarily interested in enhancing how people interact with AI-powered systems, with a special emphasis on human-LLM interactions. I aim to better understand how these systems can support users more effectively. By integrating insights from various disciplines, I work to create interactions that are both meaningful and tailored to the unique needs of each individual.

Publications

Wester, J., Brännström, A., Nieves, JC., van Berkel, N., (2023). “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”: A Formal Understanding of the Critical Friend Agent, in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, 2023 (HAI’23). Download Paper

Wester, J., Lee, M., van Berkel, N., (2023). Moral Transparency as a Mitigator of Moral Bias in Conversational User Interfaces, in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, 2023 (CUI’23). Download Paper

Wester, J., Delaunay, J., de Jong, S., van Berkel, N., (2023). On Moral Manifestations in Large Language Models, in Adjunct Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23 EA). Download Paper

van Berkel, N., de Jong, S., Wester, J., Als, N. K. K. (2023). The Challenge of Bias Mitigation in Clinical AI Decision Support: A Balance Between Decision Efficiency and Quality, In Adjunct Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23 EA). Download Paper

Wester, J., Schneiders, E., & van Berkel, N. (2023). Perceived Moral Agency of Non-Moral Entities: Implications and Future Research Directions for Social Robots, In Adjunct Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI’23 EA). Download Paper

Wester, J., Brännström, A., & Nieves, J. C. (2022). Towards a Formalization of the Critical Friend and Socio-Moral Decision-Making in Autonomous Systems, In Adjunct Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-ECAI’22 EA) Download Paper