Post-doctoral researcher x2

Post-doctoral researcher: x2

About the position
The AIAL is seeking two full-time post-doctoral fellows to work with Dr. Abeba Birhane and other lab members in

  1. Policy translation and
  2. AI evaluation, both under the broad topic of AI accountability.

The primary role of the successful candidate in policy translation is to investigate existing policy gaps and produce policy insights both through novel research as well as skillful synthesis and interpretation of existing empirical evidence. While the candidate working on AI evaluation is expected to design and execute audits to evaluate a broad range of AI systems for bias, harm, and rights violations, and similar issues that primarily affect vulnerable groups

Responsibilities include:

Policy translation:

  • Research regulatory loopholes, particularly those that further disadvantage communities at the margins with the aim of developing empirical investigation and/or developing policy recommendation using original and existing work
  • Summarise, contextualise, and synthesise findings from technical work in language that speaks to and is digestible by a variety of stakeholders. This includes policy makers, government stakeholders, the research community, civil society groups, and impacted communities
  • As well as academic research, the successful candidate will write policy briefs, opinion pieces, and policy analysis synthesising and connecting gaps between the most up-to-date AI research, regulations, and debates

AI evaluation:

  • Design and execute audits to evaluate a broad range of AI systems for bias, harm, rights violations, and similar issues that primarily affect vulnerable groups
  • Develop tools to systematically track, monitor, and document deployed AI systems and incidents
  • Develop novel approaches to investigate and analyse the down-stream societal impact of AI systems
  • Collaborate with the rest of the AIAL team to implement and run experiments and build evaluation tools necessary to the AIAL’s research needs

Skills and experience:

Policy translation:

  • Strong background in AI accountability research and policy, ideally work in algorithmic audits and/or in evaluation and implementation of AI systems
  • Strong critical and analytical background, and motivation that aligns with AIAL’s core mission
  • Ideally versed in the current European (and African) regulatory landscape and ongoing discussions and debates
  • A track record of inter-multidisciplinary research, with a particular experience of integrating input from various domains to produce novel policy insights
  • Experience or interest in taking a leadership role

AI evaluation:

  • Keep up-to-date with the latest research and trends in AI evaluation, generative models, including AI “agents”
  • High technical engineering competence, with a PhD in computer science, AI, machine learning, or a related field
  • A strong track-record in and hands-on experience with model evaluation
  • Experience or interest in taking a leadership role

Application deadline: applications are reviewed on a rolling basis
Duration: 2 years
Location: AIAL, Trinity College Dublin

To apply:
Email: aial@tcd.ie with subject line: “AIAL postdoc”

  • a letter of motivation
  • a CV
  • a representative work