International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Saeedeh Babaii

Society, Culture and Technological Change

Dr. Saeedeh Babaii works as a postdoctoral researcher at the IZEW and was a teaching fellow at the Transdisciplinary Course Program at the University of Tübingen. She did her bachelor’s in Physics at Sharif University of Technology in Iran. For her mas­ter’s and PhD, she studied Philosophy of Science and Technology and completed her doctoral degree at the Institute for Huminites and Cultural Studies. For her master’s, she worked on “Andrew Feenberg’s Ideas about Alternative Modernity” and for her PhD she studied “The Role of Technology in the Quality of Care Crisis”. Her PhD dissertation is selected as the best dissertation of the year 2021 in the IHCS. She co-founded FAHM, a research group for Philosophical and Ethical Studies of AI, in 2019 in Iran.

Areas of Expertise

  • Philosophy and Ethics of Technology
  • Philosophy and Ethics of AI
  • Human/Robot Interaction
  • Medical Humanities
  • Philosophy of Medicine
  • Ethics of Care

Research Experience

  • University of Tübingen, IZEW 
    • Postdoc Researcher, project: Artificial Intelligence, Trustworthiness and Explainability (AITE), Oct 2022-Dec 2023 
  • University of Tübingen 
    • Teach at Tübingen Postdoc Fellow, Apr-Sep 2022 
    • Teaching course: Ethics of Artificial Intelligence 
    • Research program: Ethics of Human/AI Interaction 
  • University of Tübingen, IZEW  
    • Project Advisor: “WeNet; Internet of Us”. WeNet pilot study: “We Are Using a Chatbot”, May-Oct 2022 
  • USERN  
    • Research Deputy of Medical Humanities Association (MHA), Apr 2021-Now 
  • FAHM (Research Group for Philosophical and Ethical Studies of AI)
    • Co-founder/Senior Researcher, June 2019-Now
  • Sharif University of Technology
    • Researcher at the Mohajer Research Institute, Nov 2018-July 2019 
  • Sharif University of Technology
    • Researcher at the Institute for Science and Technology Policymaking, Oct 2016-March 2017  

Teaching Experience

  • Teaching Fellow, International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)
  • Lecturer, "Medical Humanities and Artificial Intelligence" Course at:
    • Iran University of Medical Sciences, Dec 2019- Dec 2021
    • Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, June 2019- Dec 2021
    • Kordestan University of Medical Sciences, Feb 2021- Dec 2021
    • Babol University of Medical Sciences, June 2020
    • Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, June 2020
  • Instructor, "Philosophical Writing" at the 10th Philosophy of Medicine Olympiad, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, 2018
  • Teaching Assistant, Philosophy of Technology, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Prof. Alireza Monajemi, 2021
  • Teaching Assistant, Philosophy of Technology, Sharif University of Technology. Prof. Mostafa Taqavi, 2014
  • Teaching Assistant, Philosophy of Science, Amirkabir University of Technology, Prof. Saeed Zibakalam, 2014

Selected Publications

Papers

 Book Chapters 

  • Azadegan, E., Babaii, S., Zargar, Z., (to be published), "Feminist Care Ethics from an Islamic Stance" in "The Handbook of Islamic Ethics", Bloomsbury Publishing. 
  • Soltani, A. M., Khoshnevis, Y., Babaii, S., Asadifard, R., 2018, "Selected Articles in the Policymaking of Emerging Technologies", Rasa Press. 

Conference Proceedings and Abstracts

  • Norouzi, Z., Amirkhani, F., Babaii, S., 2023. "Psychotherapist Bots:
    Transference and Countertransference Issues". CEPE. Chicago. Accepted.
  • Babaii, S. 2022. “Counselor Bots as Mental Healthcare Assistants and Some Ethical Challenges”. Robophilosophy Conference, Helsinki. 
  • Babaii, S., Saberi, N., Bahreini, M., 2022. “An Ethical Analysis of the Human/Robot Emotional Interaction”, The First Conference on Cyberspace Proceedings (to be published), University of Tehran.  
  • Babaii, S., 2021. "The Mediation of Technology in Quality of Care Crisis". The Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference: SPT 2021. Lille. 

Invited Talks

  • “The Problem of Responsibility Gap and Strategies for Responsible Development of AI”, National Research Institute for Science Policy (NRISP). Iran. June 2023.
  • “GAN; a Promising Approach to Mitigate the Problem of Bias in AI”. University of Tübingen. IZEW Research Colloquium, May 2022. 
  • “An Ethical Approach Towards AI Applications in Border Control”. University of Tübingen. Border Regimes and the Age of Technoscience. June 2022. 
  • "Ethics of Care" Workshop, Sharif University of Technology, August 2020
  • "Ethical Challenges of AI: Agency, Transparency, Bias". Fanap Corporation. Horizon Talks. August 2020 
  • “Robots for Care?”. Sharif University of Technology, Philosophy and Ethics of Technology seminars, Feb 2019 
  • "Requirements of Technology Transfer ", Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Feb 2018 

Event Organization

  • AITE Conference, IZEW, Ethics and Philosophy Lab, Oct 2023 
  • Social Justice and Technological Future Symposium, IZEW, May 2023 
  • Philosophy and Gender, University of Tehran, Feb 2018 
  • Biomathematics workshop, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Dec 2010 
  • National Physics Conference for Students, Farzanegan (NODET) High School, Feb 2005 

Awards and Honors

  • Received Teach@Tübingen international scholarship, University of Tübingen, Apr-Oct 2022 
  • Awarded the best dissertation of the year, Institute for Humanities and Cultural studies, 2021
  • Ranked as the top student in Master of Philosophy of Science, Amirkabir University of Technology, 2015 
  • Ranked 370th in the annual nationwide universities entrance exam (Konkoor) among more than 200,000 participants in the second region, 2008                                                  
  • Member of The National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET), 2001-2008