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Research project

Citizen-Centric Artificial Intelligence Systems

Project overview

In this project, we are developing the fundamental science needed to build trusted (and trustworthy) citizen-centric AI systems. These AI systems will put citizens at their heart, rather than view them as passive providers of data. They will make decisions that maximise the benefit for citizens, given their individual constraints and preferences. They will use incentives where appropriate to encourage positive behaviour change, but they will also be robust to strategic manipulation, in order to prevent individuals from exploiting the system at the expense of others. Importantly, citizen-centric AI systems will involve citizens and other stakeholders in a feedback loop that enables them to audit decisions and modify the system's behaviour to ensure that effective but also ethical decisions are taken.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Sebastian Stein

Professor
Research interests
  • Citizen-Centric Artificial Intelligence Systems
  • Mechanism Design and Incentive Engineering in Multi-Agent Systems
  • Applications of AI in smart energy, transportation, electric vehicle charging and disaster re…
Connect with Sebastian

Email: ss2@ecs.soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

EVMapSim: a network-level electric vehicle charging simulator
Prokopis Georgiou, Jayati Deshmukh, Vahid Yazdanpanah, Sebastian Stein & Enrico Gerding, 2026
DOI: 10.65109/WOKO4552
Type: conference
The triad of identity, trust and responsibility in multi-agent systems
Jayati Deshmukh, Vahid Yazdanpanah, Sebastian Stein & Savapali D. Ramchurn, 2026
DOI: 10.65109/VTZX9616
Type: conference
Client-master multiagent deep reinforcement learning for task offloading in mobile edge computing
Tesfay Zemuy Gebrekidan, Sebastian Stein & Tim Norman, 2026, ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems, 21(1), 1-27
DOI: 10.1145/3768579
Type: article
Written response to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero call for evidence "Data for AI in the energy system" - A Case for Standardised and Openly Accessible Electric Vehicle Charge Point Data
Bruno Arcanjo, Jan Buermann, Sebastian Stein & Andrew Cruden, 2026
DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/PP0177
Type: report
Written response to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero call for evidence "Data for AI in the energy system" - Privacy-Aware Sharing of Smart Device Data
Ezhilarasi Periyathambi, Fariba Dehghan, Jan Buermann, Sebastian Stein & Andrew Cruden, 2026
DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/PP0176
Type: report
Adaptive pricing and learning in the multi-market routing problem
Behrad Koohy, Vahid Yazdanpanah, Sebastian Stein & Enrico Gerding, 2025
DOI: 10.3233/FAIA251262
Type: conference
Multiagent systems based on large language models: a citizen-centric perspective
Sebastian Stein, Sarah Kiden, Vahid Yazdanpanah, Zhaoxing Li, Adrian Low, Andrew Efe John Poile, Behrad Koohy, Beining Zhang, Bruno Arcanjo, Connor Watson, Eike Schneiders, Eu Jin Lim, Ezhilarasi Periyathambi, Fariba Dehghan, Jan Buermann, Jayati Deshmukh, Jim Dilkes, Luke Oliver Nicholas, Prokopis Georgiou, Richard Gomer & Wen Gu, 2025
Type: conference