About the job

Job summary

The AI Safety Institute

The AI Safety Institute (AISI) is looking for a Research Scientist to study the impact of advanced AI on people and society. We want to study how advanced AI systems (including but not limited to large language models [LLMs]) are being used by people in both personal and professional settings. We want to know how they are being used in schools and colleges, and how this might impact education. 

We want to know how they impact productivity in the workplace, and what this might mean for the economy.  We want to know what queries people are posing to models and whether the answers are likely to change their views or attitudes, and what this means for our democracy. We want to study how AI is being used to gather information about specific domains such as health and current affairs, and the risks that this poses. Finally, as advanced AI models become more capable, we would like to study how they are being used to autonomously make decisions on the user’s behalf, such as in a consumer setting.

The answers to these questions will feed into the wider research agenda at AISI, which studies the safety concerns raised by new advanced AI models and their likely global impact.

The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advanced AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the AI Safety Summit because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government. Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, start-ups and the UK government, and ML professors from Oxford and Cambridge. We are now calling on the world’s top technical talent to build the institute from the ground up. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level.

We have ambitious goals and need to move fast. Our top priorities are to:

• Develop and conduct evaluations on advanced AI systems. We will characterise safety-relevant capabilities, understand the safety and security of systems, and assess their societal impacts.
• Drive foundational AI safety research. We will launch moonshot research projects and convene world-class external researchers
• Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include policymakers, international partners, private companies, academia, civil society, and the broader public.

Job description

The candidate will have a background in empirical or computational social science, and a demonstrable track record of conducting research that studies how digital technology impacts our society, economy, or democracy.

The appointed candidate will have strong academic credentials, including graduate-level training (in most cases a PhD).  They will have experience of lab-based experimentation, running RCTs, analysing natural experiments, or conducting computational analyses of big data (or ideally, all of the above).

They will be comfortable with hands-on use of advanced statistical methods and data analytic tools, but also demonstrate an understanding of the most pressing questions that arise when measuring the impact of AI on society.  They will have a familiarity with the fast-moving literature on AI development and how it applies to the social sciences

Person specification

The ideal candidate will have excellent research skills.

Example duties on any given day could include:

• Applying data science methods to analyze large-scale usage data from an LLM
• Designing a survey to gain information about model usage in a given setting
• Identifying and liaising with third parties / providers who may facilitate data access
• Dealing with ethical or data protection issues that arise from a study
• Constructing advanced statistical models that quantify trends in a dataset
• Preparing a paper for internal or external publication
• Coordinating with other team members to build infrastructure for data collection or analysis

The ideal candidate will have skills and experience that allow them to:

• Design pipelines to conduct rigorous and impactful research in the social sciences
• Analyse and interpret data in ways that meaningfully contribute to research at AISI
• Understand the capabilities and potential impact of advanced AI models, including LLMs
• Conduct advanced statistical analysis using R, Python or an equivalent tool
• Keep track of and respond to the fast-moving literature, ensuring that our research is additional to that being conducted elsewhere
• Coordinate closely with research and engineering partners in your team to design new methods and build the instruments that enable high-quality data collection at scale, with a focus on AI alignment
• Clearly communicate insights from studies to influence research decisions across stakeholders. 

Essential requirements for the role this include:

• Significant experience with leading work in empirical or computational social science, including large-scale data collection and/or analysis
• A track record of conducting and disseminating rigorous and impactful research
• Experience with data science methods and strong coding skills in a relevant language
• Expertise in advanced statistical methods
• An understanding of the ethical and data protection issues associated with data collection (e.g. Research Ethics, GDPR)
• Strong project management skills and demonstrable experience of teamwork, including building rapport with people from diverse backgrounds

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £85,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £11,474 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please apply with a copy of your CV and a personal statement (500 word limit) setting out your answers to the questions below:

• Why are you interested in joining the AISI right now?
• What are the most important technical projects UK government needs to undertake within the next few months to advance AI Safety?
• What do you want to be doing to drive those projects forward?
• Is there anything else about your skills, experience or background you’d like us to be aware of?

Sift and interview process

Applications will be sifted on the CV and personal statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement.

Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:-

Stage 1: Coding Test - To be completed within 72 hours 
Stage 2: Sifting if successful at coding test 
Stage 3: Initial Interview
Stage 4: Research interview 1
Stage 5: Research interview 2 
Stage 6: Senior Civil Servant interview 

Sift and interview dates

Expected Timeline subject to change

Sift dates: w/c 05/02/2024

Interview dates: w/c 12/02/2024

Interview Location: MS Teams.

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

If you have any questions about the role or your application, then please send an email to aisi-talentrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

We fully support adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

We do not have an exhaustive list of adjustments that we support but just some examples include additional time to complete your application form, behaviour questions up to 72 hours prior to interview and having extra time at interview.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Nationality Requirements

If you do not meet the standard nationality requirements as detailed below, then we would still encourage you to submit an application.  We may be able to explore other options such as seconding you in from either your current employer or a third party organisation.

 Not meeting the nationality rules set out below should not be seen as an automatic barrier to applying for this role.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.