Kees van Berkel

Kees van Berkel is an Assistant Professor in AI Ethics at the Institute of Logic and Computation, TU Wien. His research focuses on logical and formal approaches to normative reasoning, AI ethics, and deontic logics. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from TU Wien (2022) and has held postdoctoral positions at Ruhr Universität Bochum and the University of Amsterdam. He teaches courses on AI Ethics, logical argumentation, and normative reasoning at both bachelor and master levels.

Van Berkel's work bridges philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence. His research explores formal methods for ethical AI, including deontic explanations, normative systems, and argumentation frameworks. He has published extensively on topics like STIT logics, inconsistency measures in deontic reasoning, and applications of formal logic to Indian philosophical texts.

His academic roles include co-coordinator of the AI Ethics Special Interest Group at TU Wien's Center for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (CAIML), and membership in the Cluster of Excellence 'Bilateral AI' (BILAI). He has organized workshops and tutorials on logical argumentation and serves on program committees for major conferences like AAAI and KR.

Key projects include the LoDEx initiative (Logical Argumentation for Deontic Explanations) and involvement in interdisciplinary research on normative reasoning in AI systems. His recent work emphasizes ethical auditing of LLM-based chat services and formalizing dialogical approaches to deontic explanations.