The Future Society is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit think-and-do tank. We advance the global governance of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. We help society govern AI, seizing the opportunities it presents while mitigating its risks. We are looking for 1 intern to join our team and support our project on AI against Modern Slavery. 

Our research addresses a range of AI policy topics. Our partners include The World Bank, UNESCO, OECD, EY, Microsoft, The Future of Life Institute, leading academic institutions (e.g. Sciences Po Paris, Harvard Kennedy School), and many more. Please see our website for more examples on the topics and methods of our work. This year, The Future Society is adding an element of applied AI research to its agenda, starting by looking into how AI can be used for reading and benchmarking businesses’ reports on Modern Slavery. 

Years after the adoption and implementation of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act in 2010 and the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) in 2015, little is known about businesses’ compliance and what they have been reporting. Today there are approximately 15,000 published Modern Slavery reports and last month Australian businesses stared publishing as required by the Australian Modern Slavery Act. It is imperative to innovate the process of report analysis in order to boost compliance and help combat Modern Slavery. We are looking into automating the analysis and benchmarking of existing reports. 

Duration: To be determined

Location: Remote-based, flexible location 

Application deadline: Until filled (please apply at earliest convenience) 

Starting date: Flexible, to begin in September, 2020

Recruitment process: Fill in the following form. If you are pre-selected, this stage will be followed by three interviews with our team. 

1. Tasks

• Write clean, tested and documented Python code to analyse text data
• Use open source natural language processing frameworks to train classification algorithms for the modern slavery corpus
• Write clear and concise text reports summarising experiments’ results for both technical and non-technical audiences 
• Assist the research engineer and project manager in improving the data quality
• Perform exploratory tasks for each metric used in benchmarking the reports
• Provide input in the overall roadmap of the project
• Understand, test and improve proposed approaches and solutions by thorough questioning and ideating alternative solutions
• Supporting and participating in relevant events

2. Required skills & traits

• Experience with natural language processing, text preprocessing and analysis methods
• Mastery of Python
• Ability to work with both SQL and NoSQL data stores
• Able to use standard collaboration tools such as Git
• Proficiency in English
• Ability to work independently
• Detail-oriented, organized, conscientious, diligent

3. Bonus skills & traits (not required)

• General software engineering knowledge and skills 
• Hands-on experience with one of the major cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure)
• Any extra Computer Science, Data Science and Machine learning (ML) experience and skills
• Web scraping
• Great team spirit

4. What you can get from this role

• Help eradicate modern slavery 
• Opportunity to work with cutting edge NLP tools 
• Learn and further develop cloud deployments skills
• An ability to directly shape AI developments, building an NLP solution for something that does not exist yet 
• Help in automating manual and time-consuming work 
• Take part in a great Python challenge/opportunity to test your skills
• Being part in an agile, small, global team 
• Interacting with a high-level global network of experts in AI and leaders in AI policy, including with international organizations such as the World Bank and UNESCO
• An ability to work with geographic flexibility
• Professional development, networking, and recruitment opportunities for the next stages of the projects 
• Experience working in a dynamic, diverse, growing and international think-tank that participates in leading AI policy events around the world

The Future Society is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, membership in an employee organization, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.

The Future Society is a think-and-do-tank specialized in questions of impact and governance of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies. We are always happy to hear about people interested in working with us.

Our non-profit organization aims to address the profound consequences of the current technological explosion. Our Mission is to advance the global governance of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies. Learn more about our work here: http://www.thefuturesociety.org/  

Recruitment process: Fill in the following form: https://forms.gle/eSgtEx92AxayGMnLA. We will contact you when we open a role that could be relevant to you.

What you can get from working with us

• An ability to directly shape AI policy, ethics and governance with high-level global stakeholders;
• Interacting with a high-level global network of experts in AI and leaders in AI policy, including with international organizations;
• Skills in research, analysis, writing, project management, public speaking;
• An ability to work with geographic flexibility;
• Professional development, networking, and recruitment opportunities;
• Experience working in a dynamic, diverse, growing and international think-and-do-tank that participates in leading AI policy events around the world.

The Future Society is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, membership in an employee organization, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.