I am Timea, a PhD Candidate at the department of Social, Health and Organizational Psychology and am a member of the Goallab. 

My PhD project explores how people perceive intentions from the actions of AI agents. People increasingly interact and collaborate with AI agents in work and home settings. Understanding what an AI agent wants, or aims to attain, is crucial for successful interactions. Although scientist have made “reading of intentions” easier by making AI agents human-like (e.g., humanoid robots), many interactions take place with non-embodied algorithms, of which only the behavior can be observed (e.g., decision support systems). The current project investigates how intentions are inferred from mere behavior of AI agents. Using basic principles of intention perception, it aims to understand when AI agents are perceived as intentional, and how this affects human-AI interactions.

My research interests lie at the intersection of technology and the individual, with a focus on trust violations and repair in human - robot collaborations. My goal is to contribute to our understanding of the social implications of technologies and the ways they shape new forms of interactions, in order to create a fairer and more inclusive technological landscape (and in consequence, society).

I obtained my MSc in Human-Computer Interaction at Utrecht University, and a BSc in Computer Science and Engineering at Delft University of Technology. My educational background is complemented by my exchange at the University of Graz, where I specialized in Computational Social Systems.