Social Identities and Artificial Intelligence: Exploring the role of social identities in complex systems which include humans and machines.

Autonomous systems are an increasing part of the infrastructure of daily life. As the range and importance of such systems increases and the underlying technology rapidly develops, the UKRI has funded a range of investigatory research "nodes" to address the trustworthiness of autonomous systems

As part of this large, interdisciplinary project, the Psychology Department at Lancaster University is exploring the resilience of emergency response systems for disasters and emergencies that include both humans and autonomous systems. We examine the interaction of ordinary citizens, emergency services (police, ambulance, fire service) and different types of technology (drones, robots) in emergency response.

Social Identity processes are now recognised as being key to understanding how ordinary people respond to emergencies. At the same time, social identity processes are increasing recognised as being key to the way emergency services operate in emergencies. This PhD project will explore the potential contribution of social identity ideas for how the relationship between humans and technologies can be supported to make for more resilient emergency response.