Research Scientist, Superalignment

Key Skills

Aartificial intelligence, Data Visualization, Design, JavaScript, Large Language Models - LLMs, Machine learning techniques, Python Programming, PyTorch

Job Description

As a Research Scientist here, you will develop innovative machine learning techniques and advance the research agenda of the Superalignment team, while also collaborating with peers across the organization. We are looking for people who want to discover simple, generalizable ideas that work well even at large scale, and form part of a broader research vision that unifies the entire company.

We are seeking Research Scientists to help design and implement experiments for alignment research. Responsibilities may include:

• Designing experiments to measure the effectiveness of scalable oversight techniques such as AI-assisted feedback and Debate
• Studying generalization to see when AI systems trained on easy problems can solve hard problems
• Managing large datasets from interpretability experiments and creating visualizations to explore interpretability data
• Developing experiments to test how well chain of thought reasoning reflects model cognition
• Investigating situations when training against a reward signal causes model outputs to deteriorate
• Exploring methods to understand and predict model behaviors, such as finding inputs causing anomalous circuits or catastrophic outputs
• Designing novel approaches for using LLMs in alignment research

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Are excited about OpenAI’s mission of building safe, universally beneficial AGI and are aligned with OpenAI’s charter.
• Have a track record of coming up with new ideas or improving upon existing ideas in machine learning, demonstrated by accomplishments such as first author publications or projects
• Possess the ability to own and pursue a research agenda, including choosing impactful research problems and autonomously carrying out long-running projects
• Possess a strong curiosity about aligning and understanding ML models, and are motivated to use your career to address this challenge
• Enjoy fast-paced, collaborative, and cutting-edge research environments
• Have experience implementing ML algorithms (e.g., PyTorch)
• Can develop data visualization or data collection interfaces (e.g., JavaScript, Python)
• Want to ensure that powerful AI systems stay under human control

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation, Benefits and Perks

The annual salary range for this role is $245,000 – $450,000. Total compensation also includes generous equity and benefits: 

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family
• Mental health and wellness support
• 401(k) plan with 4% matching
• Unlimited time off and 18+ company holidays per year
• Paid parental leave (20 weeks) and family-planning support
• Annual learning & development stipend ($1,500 per year)