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Dr. K. (Katrin) Schulz

Associate professor
Faculty of Science
ILLC
Photographer: Yunfu Duan

Visiting address
  • Science Park 900
  • Room number: L6.52
Postal address
  • Postbus 94201
    1090 GE Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    Associate professor in experimental methods in AI and logic at the Institute of Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam.

    It is fascinating how from the countless individual experience we make day for day we can derive a consistent and shared picture of the world surrounding us. How does that work?

    In my research I try to understand how derive from our experiences an understanding of the mechanics of the world, how we use these insights to reason about the future and how we talk about them in communication. An important part of this human "sense-making" is understanding the world as causal. Every time we choose to act in a certain we do this based on causal predicitons we make about the world. I turn the light switch because I believe that this will turn on the light and help me find the keys I dropped. In my work I try to understand how we come to have this causal picture of the world and how it forms the way we think and reason. I study these questions from various angles, combining knowledge and methodology from linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

    Over the last years we have seen the rise of AI models that show astonishing capabilities in making sense of the world as well. This was mostly achieved with respect to very narrow slices of reality, like in the case of the computer program AlpaGo. But recently we have seen the development of generative AI models like chatGPT that seem to display human-like skills in a much broader sense. But what do these models actually learn? And how do we have to understand these surprising capabilities in relation to human intelligence? These are questions my research has been turning to lately, with a particular focus on human like stereotypes and biases that these models models seem to pick up.

    Current projects:

    • RPA Human(e) AI project The politics of bias in AI: challenging the technocentric approach. Together with Marjolein Lanzing I am studying the concept of bias in relation to how it is used in research on bias in Natural Language Processing. The goal is to develop conceptual tools that can help this research to advance.
    • NWO Open competition for digitalisation SSH for the project The biased reality of online media - Using stereotypes to make media manipulation visible. 2021-2026. Together with Leendert van Maanen from the University of Utrecht, Jelle Zuidema from the University of Amsterdam and two PhD students, Oskar van der Wal and Dominik Bachmann, we work on measuring bias in language models and using these measures to investigate how bias in (online) media affects our beliefs.

    I'm a member of CERTAIN and managing the website.

    Recent publications

    1. Kolvoort, Fisher, Schulz, van Rooij, van Maanen (forthcoming). Probabilistic causal reasoning under time pressure. PLOS ONE.
    2. van der Wal, Bachmann, Leidinger, van Maanen, Zuidema, Schulz (2024). Undesirable biases in NLP: Addressing challenges of measurement. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research.
    3. Barbero, F., Schulz, K., Velázquez-Quesada, F. R., & Xie, K. (2023). Observing interventions: a logic for thinking about experiments. Journal of Logic and Computation.

    CV

  • Publications

    2024

    • van der Wal, O., Bachmann, D., Leidinger, A., van Maanen, L., Zuidema, W., & Schulz, K. (2024). Undesirable Biases in NLP: Addressing Challenges of Measurement. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 79, 1-40. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.15195 [details]

    2023

    2022

    2021

    2020

    2019

    • Schulz, K., Smets, S., Velázquez-Quesada, F. R., & Xie, K. (2019). A logical and empirical study of right-nested counterfactuals. In P. Blackburn, E. Lorini, & M. Guo (Eds.), Logic, Rationality, and Interaction: 7th International Workshop, LORI 2019, Chongqing, China, October 18–21, 2019 : proceedings (pp. 259-272). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 11813), (FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60292-8_19 [details]
    • van Rooij, R., & Schulz, K. (2019). Conditionals, causality and conditional probability. Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 28(1), 55-71. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10849-018-9275-5 [details]
    • van Rooij, R., & Schulz, K. (2019). Generic sentences: Representativeness or Causality? In M. T. Espinal, E. Castroviejo, M. Leonetti, L. McNally, & C. Real-Puigdollers (Eds.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 23 (Vol. 2, pp. 409-425). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2019.v23i2.621 [details]

    2018

    2017

    2016

    2015

    2014

    2011

    2010

    • van Rooij, R., & Schulz, K. (2010). Non-monotonic reasoning in interpretation. In J. van Benthem, & A. ter Meulen (Eds.), Handbook of Logic and Language (Elsevier Insights). Elsevier. [details]

    2008

    2007

    • van Rooij, R., & Schulz, K. (2007). Only: meaning and implicature. In M. Aloni, A. Butler, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Questions in dynamic semantics (pp. 193-224). (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 17). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
    • van Rooy, R. A. M., & Schulz, K. (2007). Only: Meaning and Implicatures. In M. Aloni, A. Butler, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Questions and Answers (pp. 193-224). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    2006

    • Schulz, K., & van Rooij, R. A. M. (2006). Pragmatic Meaning and Non-monotonic Reasoning: The Case of Exhaustive Interpretation. Linguistics and Philosophy, 29, 205-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-005-3760-4

    2022

    2012

    • Aloni, M., Kimmelman, V., Roelofsen, F., Sassoon, G. W., Schulz, K., & Westera, M. (2012). Logic, language and meaning: 18th Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 19-21 2011: revised selected papers. (Lecture notes in computer science; Vol. 7218), (FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31482-7 [details]

    2010

    • Aloni, M., Bastiaanse, H., de Jager, T., & Schulz, K. (2010). Preface. In M. Aloni, H. Bastiaanse, T. de Jager, & K. Schulz (Eds.), Logic, Language and Meaning: 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 16-18, 2009 : revised selected papers (pp. VI). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6042), (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), (FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14287-1 [details]
    • Aloni, M., Bastiaanse, H., de Jager, T., & Schulz, K. (Eds.) (2010). Logic, language and meaning: 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, December 16-18, 2009 : revised selected papers. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6042), (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), (FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14287-1 [details]
    • Schulz, K. (2010). Troubles at the Semantics/Syntax Interface: Some thoughts about the modal approach to conditionals. In M. Prinzhorn, V. Schmitt, & S. Zobel (Eds.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 14 (pp. 388-404). University of Vienna, Department of linguistics. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/479 [details]

    2007

    • Schulz, K. (2007). Counterfactual conditionals and dynamic laws. In M. Aloni, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium (pp. 193-198). Amsterdam: ILLC, University of Amsterdam.
    • Schulz, K. (2007). English past and perfect as semantically ambiguous mood marker. In M. Aloni, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium (pp. 27-30). Amsterdam: ILLC, University of Amsterdam.

    Prize / grant

    • McHugh, D., Schulz, K. & Smets, S. J. L. (2018). NWO PhDs in the Humanities Grant (€226,000). Grant number PGW.18.028. https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/i/84/31884.html
    • van Maanen, L., Schulz, K. & van Rooij, R. A. M. (2018). Unraveling the causal mind.
    • Schulz, K. (2010). NWO veni grant for the project with the title: The semantic anatomy of conditional sentences.

    Others

    • Metikoš, L. (participant) & Schulz, K. (other) (8-11-2023). Guest Lecture 'AI en de samenleving' (other).

    2023

    • Kolvoort, I. R. (2023). Novel perspectives on the causal mind: Experiments, modeling, and theory. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
    • McHugh, D. (2023). Causation and modality. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]

    2020

    • Xie, K. (2020). Where causality, conditionals and epistemology meet: A logical inquiry. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. [details]

    2017

    • Pinosio, R. (2017). The logic of Kant’s temporal continuum. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]

    2007

    • Schulz, K. (2007). Minimal models in semantics and pragmatics : free choice, exhaustivity, and conditionals. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. [details]
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
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