The Max Planck Artificial Intelligence Network (MP-AIX) has opened its general PhD call (applications via the ELLIS portal). The Multimodal Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Prof. Aslı Özyürek, Dr Esam Ghaleb) is a registered partner.

Applicants interested in the topics below may list Prof. Özyürek as a preferred supervisor under MP-AIX. This involves studying how different communication channels (speech, gesture, gaze, prosody, etc.) work together, and developing AI methods to model these signals. Below are a few example research directions that applicants can consider:

  • Investigating AI models that interpret spoken language in context by incorporating visible and vocal cues. Gestures and facial expressions accompany all spoken languages, and sign languages show that language can be fully expressed in the visual modality.
  • Using large-scale data-driven methods to recognise and interpret the interplay of speech and other modalities. This could involve training neural networks on synchronised video, audio, and text data to automatically detect how gestures or gaze contribute to meaning in conversations.
  • Bridging cognitive science and AI to model how humans integrate multiple signals during communication (e.g., using insights from psycholinguistics and neuroscience to inform computational models of multimodal language processing.
  • Building AI agents that engage in face-to-face dialogue using verbal and nonverbal cues. This research direction includes modelling phenomena like alignment: how conversation partners adapt their speech patterns and gestures to each other.

How to apply: Submit via the ELLIS portal and select “Max Planck AI Network (MP-AIX)” as your research field. You can indicate preferred advisors (e.g., Prof. Aslı Özyürek). Deadline: 31 October 2025 (23:59 AoE).

Portal & details: ai.mpg.de/application

We welcome candidates from ML/NLP, speech/vision, and cognitive science. MP-AIX encourages collaboration across Max Planck institutes, with opportunities to connect to ELLIS groups where relevant.

If you have questions, please contact Esam Ghaleb: esam.ghaleb@mpi.nl