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Dr. P.M. (Paula) Helm

Faculty of Humanities
Capaciteitsgroep Media & Cultuur
Photographer: Bastiaan Heus

Visiting address
  • Turfdraagsterpad 9
Postal address
  • Postbus 94550
    1090 GN Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    I am an Assisstant Professor specializing in the fields of Critical AI Studies and Empirical Ethics. Originally trained in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Research, my work today is situated at the intersection of STS, Media Studies and Empirical Technology Ethics.

    I am the co-leader of the Empirical Ethics Research Group at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Studies and I coordinate a new Media Studies MA-track on Cultural Data & AI: the first MA program ever to combine Cultural Studies, AI Ethics, and STS with the teaching of programming skills. I am also a Co-PI of the mid-size grant Lost without Translation. Estimations and Implications of Invisible Languages on the Internet and I run an explorative research project on Digital Transformation in the Amazon Assemblage. As part of this project, we have published a magazine merging indigenous knowledges on technology and water preservation with Western scientific approaches. This magazine was translated in Sateré (a traditional indigenous language), English and Portuguese. The research project was also covered in De Groene Amsterdammer and The Guardian.

    I am a co-PI of the HAVA Lab, an interdisciplinary hub for the sociotechnical development and ethicopolitical reflection on next generation video AI as well as a member of the Certain-AI Network, a center for explainable, responsible and theory-driven AI. I am further an accelerate fellow at the UvA Data Science Center. In the context of these networks and projects, I am supervising PhD-students who do research at the intersection of technology ethics and STS, including, among others, on the "Ethics of Red Teaming" and the "Ethics of Video AI".

    The larger goal and mission of my work is to move AI-Ethics from the PR- to the Engineering-, Infrastructural- and Development-Level. To reach this goal, I am collaborating with a variety of stakeholders raging from NGOs, Tech Start-Ups, Municipalities and Cultural Associations to colleagues from other departments, including Computer Science, Law, and Economics. While doing so, I combine critical co-creation approaches with empirical ethics, always maintaining a reflective STS-lens. I hold a doctorate of philosophy/cultural studies (summa cum laude).

    Apart from teaching and research, I am serving as a member of the UvA Ethics Committee.

    Before coming to Amsterdam, I was a research associate at the MCTS at Technical University Munich and the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences at Tübingen University, where I was co-leading several national and EU-projects concerned with the creation and ethical advancement of AI-Systems in various domains. I completed my PhD while I was working as a research associate at the University of Frankfurt in an interdisciplinary research project dealing with the “Structural Transformations of Privacy”. I was also a visiting fellow at the Institute for Information Systems Design in Kassel/TU Darmstadt, the Center for Surveillance Studies at Queen’s University (invited by David Lyon) and at New York University, where I was a member of  the Privacy Research Group (invited by Helen Nissenbaum).

    In 2022 I was honored to be awarded the recognition of being on the list of 100 Most Brilliant Women in AI-Ethics.

    I am also a mother of two children.

  • Publications

    2025

    • Helm, P. M., & Gerlek, S. (2025). Empirical AI Ethics. Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society.
    • Helm, P. M., Klausner, M., & Näser-Lather, M. (2025). Digital Ethnography and Critical Data Studies: A fruitful encounter. In E. Buchanan, & N. Whiteman (Eds.), Bloomsbury Handbook for Online Research
    • Helm, P. M., van Voorst, R. S., & Bonami Rosa, B. (2025). Reimagining Knowledge in the Amazon Rainforest. Crafting Alternative Futures. Amsterdam University Press.

    2024

    • Bella, G., Helm, P., Koch, G., & Giunchiglia, F. (2024). Tackling Language Modelling Bias in Support of Linguistic Diversity. In ACM FAccT '24: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp. 562-572). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3630106.3658925 [details]
    • Helm, P. M. (2024). How platform power undermines diversity-oriented innovation. Internet Policy Review, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.14763/2024.2.1780
    • Helm, P. M., & Tobias Matzner (2024). Co-addictive human–machine configurations: Relating critical design and algorithm studies to medical-psychiatric research on “problematic Internet use”. . New Media & Society, 26(12), 7295-7313. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231165916
    • Helm, P. M., Bella, G., Giunchiglia, F., & Koch, G. (2024). Language Technology and Diversity. How Language Modelling Bias Causes Epistemic Injustice. . Ethics and Information Technology, 26(8). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-023-09742-6
    • Helm, P. M., Roser Pujadas, & Benjamin Lipp (2024). Generating Reality, Silencing Debate. Synthetic Data as Discursive Device. . Big Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241249
    • Koch, G., Bella, G., Helm, P. M., & Giunchiglia, F. (2024). Layers of Technology in Pluriversal Design. Decolonising AI Language Technology with the LiveLanguage Initiative. . CoDesign , 20(1), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2024.2341799
    • Lipp, B., Helm, P. M., Pujadas, R., & Karafilidis, A. (2024). De-centring the interface. Towards the integrated study of interfacial relations. . Information, Communication & Society, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2413110
    • Vickers, P., Adamo, L., Alfano, M., Clark, C., Cresto, E., Cui, H., Dang, H., Dellsén, F., Dupin, N., Gradowski, L., Graf, S., Guevara, A., Hallap, M., Hamilton, J., Hardey, M., Helm, P., Landrum, A., Levy, N., Machery, E., ... Finnigan, S. M. (2024). Development of a Novel Methodology for Ascertaining Scientific Opinion and Extent of Agreement. PLoS ONE, 19(12), Article e0313541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313541 [details]

    2023

    • Helm, P., de Götzen, A., Cernuzzi, L., Hume, A., Diwakar, S., Ruiz Correa, S., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2023). Diversity and neocolonialism in Big Data research: Avoiding extractivism while struggling with paternalism. Big Data and Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231206802 [details]

    2022

    • Fischer, M., Hirsbrunner, S., Keim, D., & Helm, P. M. (2022). Promoting Ethical Awareness in Communication Analysis: Investigating Potentials and Limits of Visual Analytics. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency, Seoul, South Korea. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533151
    • Helm, P. M., Michael, L., & Schelenz, L. (2022). Diversity by Design? Balancing the Protection and Inclusion of Users in Online Social Networks. In Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, Oxford, United Kingdom. (pp. 324-334). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3514094.3534149

    2021

    • Bäunlich, K., Dienlin, T., Eichenhofer, J., Helm, P. M., Trepte, S., Seubert, S., & Gusy, C. (2021). Linking Loose Ends. An Interdisciplinary Privacy and Communication Model. New Media & Society, 22(9), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448209050
    • Helm, P., & Hagendorff, T. (2021). Beyond the Prediction Paradigm: CHALLENGES FOR AI IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME . Law and Contemporary Problems , 84(3), 1-17. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol84/iss3/2

    2020

    • Helm, P. M. (2020). Anonymer Tanz als dekolonialisierende Praxis. In G. Koch, & J. Moser (Eds.), Welt, Wissen, Design (pp. 168-185). Hamburg University Press.
    • Helm, P. M. (2020). Sobriety versus Abstinence. How 12-Stepper Negotiate Recovery Across Groups. Addiction Research & Theory, 27(1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2018.1530348
    • Helm, P. M., & Seubert, S. (2020). Normative Paradoxes of Privacy: Literacy and Choice in Platform Societies. Surveillance & Society, 18(2), 185-198. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v18i2.13356

    2018

    2017

    2016

    • Helm, P. M. (2016). Addiction as Emotional Illness: The Testimonies of Anonymous Recovery Groups. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 236(1), 79-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2016.1114314
    • Helm, P. M., Hennig, M., Keckeis, C., Kreknin, I., & Beyvers, E. (2016). Räume und Kulturen des Privaten. Springer.

    2015

    • Helm, P. M. (2015). Freiheit durch Anonymität? Privatheitsansprüche, Privatheitsnormen und der Kampf um Anerkennung. WestEnd, 16(1), 133-144.

    2024

    • Bonami Rosa, B., Ferreira Sateré, J., Filizola, N., Rosa, B. B., Helm, P. M., van Voorst, R. S., Clayton da Silva, A., Magalhães, M., & Sateré, J. F. (2024). Water and Technologies: Community material for water and digital sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest.
    • Helm, P., Lipp, B., & Pujadas, R. (2024). Generating reality and silencing debate: Synthetic data as discursive device. Big Data and Society, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241249447

    2020

    • Helm, P. M. (2020). Leben im Netz. Kuckuck. Notizen zur Alltagskultur.
    • Helm, P. M. (2020). Longing for a Selfless Self and other Ambivalences of Anonymity. In A. Collective (Ed.), Book of Anonymity (pp. 401-423). Punctum Books.

    2019

    • Helm, P. M., & Eichenhofer, J. (2019). Reflexionen zu einem social turn in den privacy studies. Sozialwissenschaftlich- rechtliche Perspektiven. In M. Hennig (Ed.), Digitalität und Privatheit (pp. 139-165). Transcript Verlag.

    2017

    • Helm, P. M. (2017). Transparenz und Anonymität: Potentiale, Irrtümer, Grenzen. Forschungsjournal Neue Soziale Bewegungen, 17(2), 142-152.
    • Helm, P. M., & Seubert, S. (2017). Privatheit und Demokratie. Forschungsjournal Neue Soziale Bewegungen, 30(2).
    • Seubert, S., & Helm, P. M. (2017). Privatheit und Demokratie. Forschungsjournal Neue Soziale Bewegungen, 17(2), 110-114.

    2016

    • Helm, P. M. (2016). Suchtkultur und Gruppentherapie: Vom anonymen Ich zum anonymen Wir. Springer.

    2015

    • Helm, P. M. (2015). Die utopischen Sicherheitszwänge selbstidentifizierter Süchtiger und das Wagnis der Anonymität. Paragrana, 24(1), 58-69.
    • Helm, P. M. (2015). Mythos und Autonomie im Therapieprogramm selbstgeründeter Suchtgenesungsgruppen. In H.-P. Zimmermann (Ed.), Lust am Mythos.: Neuzugänge zu einem populären Phänomen. (pp. 262-270). Jonas Verlag fur Kunst und Literatur GmbH.

    2020

    • Helm, P. M., Dienlin, T., & Eichenhofer, J. (2020). Myth #45: Privacy is dead. In M. Kettemann (Ed.), Busted! The Truth About The 50 Most Common Internet Myths (pp. 202-206). Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

    Prize / grant

    • Khanna, S., Helm, P., Eisele, O. & Schulz, K. (2025). Lost without Translation.
    • Helm, P. (2025). ELLIOT.
    • Helm, P., Bonami Rosa, B. & van Voorst, R. (2023). Digital Transformation in the Amazon Assemblage.

    Media appearance

    Talk / presentation

    • Helm, P. (speaker) (17-2-2025). Decoding Bias in Dara, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam.
    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
    No ancillary activities