Artificial Intelligence, Human Behaviour, and Societal Challenges
The AI & Behaviour group at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam runs the seminar series: Artificial Intelligence, Human Behaviour, and Societal Challenges.
The series aims to create an interdisciplinary space where researchers can exchange ongoing work and share perspectives on how artificial intelligence, human behaviour, and society shape one another.
Our next seminar will take place after the summer break. Further details will be announced soon.
Previous presentations
From Browsing History to ChatGPT Conversations: Data Donation as a Method for Studying AI’s Influence on Human Behaviour
27 May 2026, 15:00
Artificial intelligence increasingly shapes what news people read, what content algorithms recommend, and what information people seek out through tools like ChatGPT. Yet studying these influences on human behaviour requires solving two interlinked challenges: getting the right data and being able to analyse it reliably. This talk presents data donation – where participants actively share their own digital trace data with researchers – as a key method for accessing otherwise opaque information environments. Drawing on a series of projects ranging from browser history and TikTok donations to a recent study collecting ChatGPT conversation histories, I discuss what we can learn about AI-mediated information exposure and seeking behaviour, and what remains stubbornly hard. A particular focus is the analytical challenge: when the data is messy, personal, and multi-layered/modal, how do we use computational tools – including AI itself – to make sense of it, and how much can we trust what we measure?
Dr. Felicia Loecherbach
Felicia Loecherbach is an Assistant Professor in Political Communication and Journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research. Her research focuses on online news consumption, news diversity, and the use of computational methods in the social sciences. She is particularly interested in how digital information environments shape the ways people encounter, understand, and engage with news, using approaches such as digital trace data, data donations, and computational content analysis. She obtained a PhD in Computational Political Communication Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University.
Social media: a window into our minds
28 January 2026, 15:00
Depression and anxiety are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. However, their variegated presentation and symptoms complicate efforts to develop a better understanding of the complex factors that shape the dynamics of their development within individuals. The analysis of these complex dynamics requires within-subject longitudinal observations at high temporal resolution and large samples of individuals across the spectrum of internalizing disorders. In this talk, I will show that large-scale data taken from socio-technical systems allows for insights into human behavior to further understand internalizing disorders using computational approaches.
Dr. Marijn ten Thij
Marijn ten Thij is an Assistant Professor in Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. His main interests involve the usage of mathematical modelling to study and mimic human behavior through data obtained from online sources, such as social media. He obtained a PhD in Applied Mathematics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, after completing a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente. Prior to his current role, he worked as an assistant professor at Maastricht University and as a postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology and Indiana University Bloomington.
Participatory design for inclusive AI in healthcare
26 November 2025, 15:00
This talk explores participatory design as a pathway to inclusive AI in healthcare, addressing the urgent need to reduce health inequalities through responsible technology development. Digital health technologies (DHTs), such as wearables and apps, offer promising opportunities for personalized care and disease management. However, without inclusive design, these innovations risk exacerbating disparities among vulnerable populations, particularly those with low socioeconomic status and limited digital or health literacy. Historically, DHTs have been developed by technological stakeholders, often overlooking marginalized groups. Participatory design, grounded in human-centered and collaborative approaches, has emerged as a gold standard for ensuring usability and equity by involving patients and other stakeholders throughout the design process—from empathizing and ideation to prototyping and implementation. This presentation draws on the DACIL project, which co-designs a wearable for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), focusing on those most at risk of poor outcomes due to socioeconomic disadvantage. In this way, participatory design is hoped to be able to bridge the digital divide and promote more equitable healthcare access.
Dr. Renate Baumgartner
Renate Baumgartner is an Assistant Professor of Participatory AI at the Athena Institute of the VU Amsterdam. Her research focuses on fostering inclusive AI development through participatory methods, particularly in medicine and healthcare. Renate’s perspectives are informed by feminist science and technology studies, as well as sociology. Renate has a background in sociology, gender studies and a PhD in pharmaceutical science. Prior to her current role, she worked as a project manager in clinical development and held a tenured post-doctoral position at the Center for Gender and Diversity Research at the University of Tübingen.