About Intercom
We are building the leading AI for customer service at Intercom.
This 6-month Machine Learning Research Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for individuals passionate about joining or advancing the field of AI, and applying cutting-edge research to real-world applications.
Opportunity Overview
The fellowship provides a chance for high potential individuals to conduct or begin work on AI research projects.
We welcome applicants who are PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, or industry professionals passionate about working on cutting-edge AI research projects.
We also consider high potential individuals attempting to transfer into AI from other disciplines, such as candidates with relevant mathematical or technical skills but without much experience in AI.
Fellowship Objectives
Fellows will work towards building and improving their understanding of modern AI through project work on risky and uncertain AI projects.
You may contribute to the broader AI research community through publications and presentations.
Key Responsibilities
* Conduct advanced research in Natural Language Processing (NLP), deep learning, reinforcement learning, and recommendation systems relevant to customer service and communication.
* Develop and prototype machine learning models that enhance AI-driven customer interactions.
* Contribute to academic research through publications in top-tier conferences and journals.
* Explore emerging AI research areas and develop long-term strategies to advance the use of AI in customer service.
* Participate in external collaborations with researchers, universities, and technical institutions.
Potential Projects
You can choose from the following projects:
* Replicate the work of Deepseek r1-zero to attempt to use reinforcement learning to train models for better instruction following.
* Follow and build on the work of Anthropic on Scaling Monosemanticity to attempt to learn how to steer and control models.
* Follow and build on the work of the Llama3 paper to investigate training new Capabilities into existing open source models.
* Experiment with altering model personality in a way that could be useful in Customer Support.
* Investigate fine-tuning smaller models with SFT to use for specific use cases.
* Create benchmarks for agents that need to take actions reliably.
* Evaluate building systems that use computer-use models to drive web browsers and integrate with legacy business systems.
Requirements
* Typically currently pursuing or have completed a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field, or possess equivalent industry research experience.
* We will also consider applicants from other quantitative fields, such as physics, maths, statistics etc with relevant experience.
* Or those who can otherwise demonstrate outlier technical or quantitative talent.
Desirable Skills
* Experience bridging academic research and industry applications.
* Previous contributions to open-source AI research.
* Strong background in deep learning, reinforcement learning, NLP, or unsupervised learning.
* Hands-on experience with machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or JAX.
* Proficient in Python and familiar with data processing techniques for large-scale datasets.
* A strong research publication record in machine learning, AI, or NLP (NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, etc.).
* Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex research to technical and non-technical audiences.
Why Join Our Fellowship Program?
You will work on high-impact projects that shape the future of AI in customer service.
You will gain hands-on industry experience while maintaining strong research connections.
You will collaborate with a diverse and talented team of ML engineers, researchers, and product teams.
You will access mentorship from senior AI/ML experts.
You will have a flexible working environment with the potential to publish and showcase research.
Application Process
To apply, please submit the following:
* Your CV highlighting your research experience and relevant publications.
* A cover letter outlining your research interests, motivation for applying, and how your skills align with the goals of the fellowship.
* A brief research proposal (optional but encouraged) that describes your vision for the future of AI in customer service and outlines the specific research questions you would pursue during your fellowship.