Cohere For AI - Scholars Program Information Session

Key Takeaways

foreign Welcome to our information session about the cohere for AI Scholars Program uh we're really excited to talk about this today um my name is Ellie I'm the operations lead for cohere for AI and I'm joined by the inimitable Sarah hooker who is head of cohere for AI and we're going to talk everything Scholars Program today so we're very excited uh before we get started a couple of housekeeping notes we are going to have a q a session if you have questions as we're going through the information today please use the Q a function to submit your question you'll find the little button at the bottom of your screen cool I'm gonna get started there we go here's what we're going to talk about today we've got four parts to our presentation this morning uh first I'm going to talk a bit about the Scholars Program an overview of what we're trying to do and what the structure of the program is I'm going to talk about how to approach the application the different components what you can expect with that application process I'm going to go over some tips and tricks how to submit a really strong and awesome application and then we're going to have an open q a which Sarah is going to helm for us so again if you've got questions please submit them through the Q a function below all right before we really get into it I did want to take a couple of minutes to talk a little bit about cohere for AI generally um you may have found out about this webinar through all sorts of means you may not actually know what we do a whole lot so welcome and cohere for AI is a great place for you we're a non-profit research lab and we're a community dedicated to contributing fundamental research in machine learning and we're working to solve some of the Field's most challenging problems cohere for AI spans lots of exciting programs we support Community Driven research if you haven't joined our cohere for AI Discord you absolutely should our community outreach lead Madeline is also doing some chat moderation for us today she'll be the one behind the screen submitting links for you to access but join our community if you aren't a member already um we have launched the cohere for AI Scholars Program that's why you're here today to learn more about that we also have our full-time research positions and lab and our fireside chat speaker series which you can get our replay videos on our YouTube channel so if you didn't see us last week we had an awesome kickoff fireside chat you can find the replay video online fundamentally cohero AI has a really strong Mission and our mission is changing where how and by whom research is done and that is a big part of why we have the Scholars Program and why we decided to launch this so I'm really excited to talk about the Scholars Program we're going to go over this at a glance so you can understand what an amazing opportunity this is so why a Scholars Program why do this um few reasons progress in machine learning is moving at an incredible pace and broadening access to participation in fundamental research it's essential to pioneering new advancements we need more people in the space with a diverse array of backgrounds to help Advance machine learning there are very few settings to conduct research on NLP problems there's limited access to large-scale ml experimental settings getting access to compute can be challenging among other resource constraints and finally our goal is we really want to identify and support the next generation of rising stars as they embark on the research Journey so there are sort of three planks to why we decided to launch a Scholars Program so now I'm going to get into a few specifics about the c4ai Scholars Program the big things if you remember not much else from the session this was probably the stuff that you came to know it is an eight month full-time research apprenticeship so this will run from January to August 2023. so because it is full time this isn't the kind of program that would play well or you could do alongside uh if you're already in a in a Academic Program if you're already working full-time it's not designed to be done in conjunction with another full-time commitment it really is a full program you're going to be working on a real world research project it is going to require time and attention we want to really be able to support people in creating a successful research experience so it's full time it is remote first and paid because we want to identify and support emerging Talent from around the world so you don't have to relocate to participate in the Scholars Program if you are near one of our co-care offices so that's in if we're in California if you're in Toronto if you're in London in the UK you are more than welcome to stop by the office if you're a research scholar you can access that space in the community there but you do not have to relocate to participate in the program if you're a successful applicant and finally you are supported by an in-house research team we have amazing research staff here at cohere and cohere for AI and you'll be partnered with dedicated project and professional mentorship it really is a team of people around you supporting you as you start on This research Journey so we are different from other fellowship or scholarship programs you may have heard of from other places because we are searching for emerging Talent with strong machine learning skills but what we're really specifically looking for are early career researchers we're looking for people that have a very limited or no no publication track record we're also not insisting on previous lab experience we really want to find people who are talented at the beginning of their research journey and looking for that first door to open we really want this opportunity with the Scholars Program to be that open door for you okay I'm going to type but how to approach the application uh we've got lots of really great questions through various means asking questions about the application hopefully if you have if you've looked at the application even if you haven't this will give you a good idea of what to expect and some strong tips about how to approach the application and submit a really strong and compelling application to us so there are three parts to the Scholars Program application first is a take-home challenge so this is a technical exercise there's a personal statement which is a written response and then there is a video interview component as well so I'm going to go into all three of these in a little bit more detail I'm going to start with the take home challenge I think this generates Far and Away the most questions for us so hopefully this will give you a good grounding of what to expect what the challenge is designed to do is Showcase engineering and problem solving skills so it is a practical way to demonstrate the skill and creativity that you have there are three parts to it first is identifying bugs and getting code working this is a practical challenge it's designed to test your ability to take on an engineering problem break it down and show us how you go about doing this second part of the challenge is testing your ability to generate code for a specified problem and then the third part is optional it is a challenge question that's designed to extend the original problem set so it is a pretty classic t-com challenge in terms of structure if there are some big tips that we have for approaching the take-home challenge a couple of things here maximize partial points so you'll see that there are Point values throughout the take home challenge if you you're like oh I don't know if I can get all of this get as much as you can go for those partial points even if you don't think you can get all of it better to give us as strong an answer as you can than nothing at all and that in related to that if you've got an unexpected result something isn't behaving the way that you expected or you you put something in you're like hmm I would have expected X to happen but it's y instead tell us walk us through your thinking give us the setup for what you tried okay I am going to talk a little bit more about the personal statement so this is the written response portion of the application and it is an opportunity to let us know who you are and what you're hoping to achieve um this is the text of the personal statement so this is the actual question that we ask in the application if you haven't seen the posting itself here's how we're framing this we want to know more about your interest in machine learning and we want to know about your research interests and goals so please use the space to write a brief so it's 500 words or less personal statement this is your opportunity to provide context for your experience and let us know what participating in the program would mean to you so a couple of things here first of all I want to highlight the word count 500 Words is pretty tight you need to be efficient in the space and you need to be really clear as well sometimes writing short is a lot harder than writing long so we've given you a bit of a challenge there to help approach that here are some things to keep in mind as you start drafting that personal statement first is be specific and be personal you're the only person that can tell your story The more specific you can be the more we're going to know about you and who you are so a specific example specific moments in your your past and your experience are really really helpful for us understanding your context and your strengths and why this program would be a good fit for you second and I I can't stress this enough and I'm sure Sarah will also stress this as well when she uh takes the stage for the Q a is give yourself enough time to draft your response it does take longer than you think you want to be able to give yourself time to revise write it walk away from it for a couple days come back and redraft again give yourself that time at this point I think we are 20 days away from the application close so you still have that time now is a great day to get started on it and finally proofread and proofread again uh it's kind of wonderful how great our brains will fill in context and missing words and autocorrect typos but we really don't want those ask appear a friend or an advisor to review your statement they're going to notice things that your brain will have corrected and skipped over they're also going to point out maybe areas that could be stronger that could use an extra example or areas where you maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit that happens too also another good tip here try reading your statement out loud it's a good way to stop your yourself from auto correcting and smoothing over those errors you'll be able to hear how it reads and that often throws up any points that are awkward that are missing information that don't have quite the transition that you're looking for so for a lot of people there aren't many opportunities to write personal statements you don't have a whole lot of context for what a good one looks like so we do have a personal statement resource document about how to draft and we do include a sample in there this is an excerpt from that sample many thanks to the original author for that and I did want to go over this briefly because while this particular personal statement was drafted for a graduate program it was part of a PhD application it does get at the things that we would really like to see in a strong personal statement so this is just the opening paragraph I'm going to go over it real quick here this writer starts with my research interests are natural language processing particularly its intersection with machine learning the prospect of teaching a computer to understand language is one that excites me the most as new technologies emerge every day and the digital divide between dominant and low resource languages deepens it impacts the extent to which speakers of these languages access information and communicate with these Technologies hence I'm interested in developing methods that will advance the state of modeling low-resourced languages this is an exciting challenge I plan to tackle by pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Washington and the statement does continue in a lot more detail with examples but I did want to focus on this opening paragraph because it does some things really really well that I think are really useful to keep in mind as you draft your own statement so most importantly it's very clear and it's very direct there isn't a lot of really dense or academic language in there if there are specific terms like say natural language processing they're defined they're abbreviated in a way that's really clear for the person who's reviewing the statement to follow it's very direct each sentence is very distinct it articulates why the program at this time and it articulates this person's particular research interests it really gives the why why am I interested in this why do I want to do this and fundamentally it makes the reviewer's life really easy you can actually just track the argument and the examples through the paragraph so again clear simple direct language clear examples it makes whoever received that statement they're probably very very happy when they got that because they're like I know exactly who this person is I know what they want and I know why they're interested in pursuing this opportunity so the last part of our application is the video interview now the video interview is for applicants who submit a strong take-home Challenge and a strong personal statement so not everyone will complete this it is a second stage of the application that happens after you submit the first part the way that this is structured is you're given a set of possible questions and you pick one to answer just one and you pick the one that resonates with you there's no sort of hidden trick here with if you pick the correct question out of the set it really is which one do you feel the strongest pull to that you could speak on videos should be short I want a five minute maximum and we want them to be clear and what we're interested in is a genuine and thoughtful response we're interested in how you communicate uh does not have to be stream quality background and perfect lighting um just as long as it's clear direct we can hear you really clearly that's what we're looking for again genuine thoughtful response pick the question out of the set that resonates with you don't worry about trying to to game or optimize the system on that one what happens after I submit my application um we are going to review all of the applications regardless of when they're received that being said applying early and starting early on your application is an advantage to you because you have it done you have lots of time to review and you have time to end to ask questions so please please please do not leave this until the weekend before the application closes which is November 7th that's a Monday get your application in early give yourself the benefit of time to review we will not make any offers before the application closes we are going to review the entire group before we make any offers we anticipate making those offers in December for a January Program start but really submit early if you can give yourself that time so you can get the application in with plenty of time to review and plenty of time for us to review so at this point I'm going to stop the screen share I'm going to turn this over to Sarah I see we've got lots of questions flowing in this is going to be great for those of you who don't know Sarah hooker head of cohere for AI um the Scholars Program is such a core part of what we do at cohere for AI it's such a big part of our lab and I'm just going to turn it over to her to talk more and answer your questions Sarah good morning welcome yeah thanks Ellie that was fantastic so I think Ellie just gave you a picture of a lot of the details of what's happening in the lead-up to the application maybe I'll kick off and share a little bit about myself and about the lab and what you could expect from The Experience itself and then we can start weeping in questions as we go so um I lead cohere for AI a lot of uh our goal is to do curiosity driven research so we have both the community research group we have a full-time research staff and now we have the Scholars Program um a lot of this uh Scholars Program particular is going to be an Apes month paid opportunity to really pursue curiosity driven research and machine learning so I think just in terms of understanding the motivation for this is really to find the most talented Rising Stars around the world just strong Engineers who are well positioned this is a national next step in their Journey what you'll experience when you join the program and then we can start so weeping questions in I think this will be fun to do uh to to to give you some context uh and then slowly start answering some of your questions so what the experience will look like is that we're how we're in the process of two things at the same time so you're applying for the Scholars Program in parallel we're we're working with um really our research leads and our technical needs to put together strong proposals so these proposals will skew towards NLP proposals and what will happen is accepted Scholars at the end will match with these proposals and so you will have a sense even before you start of what proposals there are and you'll be able to align with an idea that makes sense and work with that for the eight months that you're in the program um and I think that's part of what's exciting is that we have some of the best research Talent um and some of the best technical Talent uh in this field and we have this really unique setting so we have this large-scale experimental setup so there's very few places in the world where you can study the models at the size that we do as well as really pursue some of these questions with that I'm going to weave in the first question so uh let's see let's start let's start with uh rml um so hi I'm trying to install the challenge it's not easy because we haven't enough experience with Jax also oh the program is only for edgemel no so I think it says in the challenge itself but this is meant to be a challenge to see how you think not to test what you're good at and it's not meant to be representative of the type of problems we're going to answer in the scholar in the Scholars Program itself um so Jax I think part of it is that we wanted to choose in framing the whole challenge is to choose something that you may have less comfort with and in many ways the whole setting is to see how you explore ambiguity so I would treat it as you're not meant to be an expert on these topics but you're meant to Showcase your thinking um I think Ellie mentioned go for partial points the whole goal is to Showcase your thinking throughout that's why we give points to adding things like documentation that's why there's 10 bonus points for doing a code review so these are all opportunities for you to Showcase your technical curiosity as well as your command of engineering first principles so that answers on Mel's question so let's see um should I know what my ml area of interest is before I apply I am unfortunately unfortunately still and throw basically every part about my research and no specific angles yet yeah of maths that I think that speaks to the heart of many uh like researchers out there so no I think part of why we're we're spending so much time on these parallel efforts of proposals is that we really want to have in place well-scoped ideas that we think are you wrist enough where we can have a huge impact but it can fit within an eight-month process um I think partly what we want to take into account is people's interests that's probably why I'm sharing now that these proposals are skewing towards NLP because that's our expertise in-house so if you're not interested in NLP at all maybe a future cohort is a better choice because um this cohort in particular will skew more towards NLP proposals but in general we just want people to come in curious and excited and wanting to work on these topics um so that I think answers Max's question I also think it's very natural when you first start out to be interested in everything so the the that's the not at all atypical um what's the difference between the personal statement the cover letter uh so I believe Ellie is updating that wording um and I'll jump in to say so the personal statement does show up as its own distinct question that you can't bypass the cover letter is part of just an optional if there's any additional information that you think would be helpful to us reviewing your application that's the spot to put it for lots of people that is a cover letter but that's not necessary at all um so let's see Anonymous attendee well keep your mysterious isn't on November 7th the deadline for the application um so yes it is the deadline for the application uh we'll probably be back with everyone by um the I mean by the end of the year we'll finalize the cohort and so we'll we'll know who exists there like who who what a final pull is by then um Stephen says how much experience NLP do you expect and accepted candidates actually this is another setting where we're not assuming that you have domain expertise like we're really selecting for people who are really curious and excited and have good technical command of uh engineering discipline but our goal is to really be the first door that opens and so really we're trying to focus on on uh with an emphasis applicants who haven't published before in machine learning or in NLP um and I'll just tag in there for a second there's also an additional question from Andy do we need to have a master's or PhD to be eligible no absolutely not um so if you don't have one of those credentials you are still absolutely welcome to apply so let's see [Music] um let's see let's see so I'm scrolling down okay so Eric says hello I'm considering a career between machine learning engineering and machine learning research and NLP I was wondering if you could share some thoughts about what kind of person might choose one pack over the other pros and cons Etc um I actually think it's a fairly blurred line so machine learning engineering typically you may be working more on uh product tracing role and you may not I think one of the key distinguishing factors is you may not end up publishing but right now the state of NLP means that both have many unanswered questions particularly if you're working at mottos at scale like there's a lot of ambiguity for both um I think that one thing to consider is do you enjoy not uh pursuing an idea end to end or do you enjoy pursuing an idea deploying iterating seeing if you need to pursue the idea further um I would say I've done both in my career so I was at you but a Google brain for five years before that I was at a startup where I did recommendation algorithms I feel like both are very valuable experiences they teach you different skills and so I really would say it comes down to whether your own personal appetite as well as what opportunities are open to you at any one time um so I feel like we've answered barat's question is NLP interest area is necessary so I think the answer to that was all can it be across all the fields okay so this is actually good let me just reiterate this all proposals are going to skew towards NLP so if you've done if you're really passionate about for example uh like computer vision problems we may not have a good representation in the proposals just because particularly for this first cohort or expertise and the research leads that we have on proposal excuse towards NLP expertise um Doterra says but take them a second question one do we listen explain oh uh or only list real world applications of low rank uh I mean I think for this uh I don't quite understand the uh the ambiguity I guess you're saying the first option is more comprehensive do we listen to explain I mean I would always ER on the side of being over comprehensive because you want the person that you're who reads your your take-home to be to have no doubts about what you're meaning so yeah of those two options I would say list and explain um but those are meant to be checked by understanding questions so you know use the time as you see fit what happens after the eight months of the research program from Nathan this is meant to be a launch patch so it's meant to take you wherever you want uh I'll call this that it's meant to be a pre-ductor program so people go on to doctor programs that people will position to apply for industry jobs um that really it gives you that uh burst prestigious research experience where you have an artifact by the end event and you can choose where you want to go next and in many ways that that's part of our goal is to make it something where it unlocks a lot of New Paths for you um so let's go down uh I think we've answered some this question do we have research opportunities in machine version I inferred from that do you mean computer vision so um I think we've answered that uh so let's see Anonymous session D how much does the optional website portfolio link way into the candidate selection process so um this is a good question I I think we in general we're going to view the profile holistically but one of the things that it it helps is it gives us a sense of what engineering projects you've done before and your technical accomplishments it's part of your overall package so even if you think about your past portfolio your take home your personal statement one thing I will say about your personal statement it's one place that you have complete control right even if you don't have a lot of Prior experience or you feel like you're getting some partial points in the take-home but you don't feel completely comfortable this is one part of the application where it's completely within your troll I would invest there so it's always a question of if your portfolio if you do have a strong portfolio absolutely you should add it because it gives us a sense of your past experience and adds more depth to your application if it's weaker your past contributions spend more time on the parts you can control like the personal statement like making sure you do a great job with the bonus points and the take-home and so that's my recommendation there so Carla asks do you also welcome people who have done research into other topics but are interested in moving to AI this is a great question I think so the spirit of what we're trying to do is really give people their first opportunity in the machine learning field if you published a paper in a different field like you know biology a few years ago I think we would still feel like it was in the spirit of what we're trying to do if you applied and you didn't have machine learning Publications uh also machine learning Workshop papers we also would look we would look at that and we would say okay this is not a main track publication it's a workshop paper it's the they only have one Workshop paper I think that's what we're trying to capture with this criteria is that we really just want we we're going to look very favorably upon applicants who don't demonstrate much experience and I think weigh that accordingly um so to answer your question um yes if it if the only research you've done is in very distinct topics and this is your first time coming to machine learning and I would still apply um and I think what I'm asking candidates to keep in mind is just the spirit of what we're trying to do so if you've done five Workshop papers then we might look at that a bit more like well are they really at the beginning of their research Journey so this is all to say I don't like prescriptive rules but this is what we're trying to achieve with this with this intent um so I'm leaving a lot of the more uh precise like the questions about um I'm leaving some of the questions for Ellie at the end uh one thing I'll just answer now can you help with the location if I want to work from Office no so we don't support relocation this is remote first um we do support remote first anyone and if you're in Toronto you can come into the office if you're in Palo Alto you can go into the office if you're in London but we don't support relocation it's a short program it's eight months um so uh Alessio eight months can be enough but also show time for games and research thoroughly done then the programs that insurance to join that team to keep working on it um so part of my intent with structuring the proposal process up front is that we're really trying to scope it so it fits within an eight-month Cadence it is small uh it is short I think that in many ways we'll we'll try and figure out ways to bridge the compute Gap afterwards um but it is an eight month contract so that's that's the intent of the program this to be an eight-month experience um so let's go to is this suitable for PhD students a different discipline I.E physics I think that's what I uh was uh that's what I implied with the answer before so the spirit of it it's intended to be for someone at the beginning of their machine Learning Journey if it's a very different discipline if none of the previous research topics have been overlapping with the machine learning uh set of tools then yes I would still recommend applying and we'll weigh it so let's see what would the time commitment be throughout the eight months this is a full-time commitment and this is going to be a fairly uh intense experience because you're doing a whole research cycle and training program within eight months so that's one of the reasons why what we're what we're really trying to capture is people who can commit to the program full-time so that was from azir um Maria when do you get the take home exercise it is live so if you go to the portal right now um it is live right now um so yeah I would recommend getting started and looking at it so uh maybe uh Madeline you can share the link to the lover site and then we can go from there um Ellie do you see any you want to take I left some throughout that might be more related to just the logistics yeah I'm just going to go through a question from Noah do we get to work with other researchers at the company or is it solo you are not solo uh you are going to be paired with a whole support team so you're going to have project mentorship you will have access to our senior research staff at cocare for AI you're definitely not alone again because this is for early career researchers and this is the the first sort of jumpstart opportunity we want to make sure that you have the right personal professional support so that you can be really successful in this project so no you're not gonna be alone you're going to be joining a really awesome team of people um it's probably one of the best reasons to join this program is the people that you do get to work with uh and everyone's so excited and passionate so you're going to be in really really good company let's see um let's see if we missed anything in here that is more logistical related in terms of number of placements and number of offers I see there are a few questions to that effect the final size and composition of the cohort is really going to depend on the applicants that we receive and then the project matching process so not a fixed number there we are going to make sure that we have the right blend so the best the best way to make sure that you're part of that blend is to submit a really strong application uh Jason asked a good question could I own ideas after vetting be considered in this program uh lingxia also says interested in this too so uh really so I guess the timing to propose this would be in the final pool I will say a lot of the emphasis is going into proposal scoping with paired mentors so uh I will say if this is a key Criterion if you're applying I just want to set expectations that uh it's not it's not clearly part of this process so I think as to as with any research cycle once we get to the final pool if someone feels strongly I have this great idea I think it would be amazing that we share and we all agree it would be amazing I would say you know still go for it in general this is my advice you know outside of this program as well in life like you should always put your ideas out there and see how you know it doesn't work um but we are spending a lot of time scoping these proposals particularly so that they will be de-risked enough where we feel like wow this is a great idea we'll have a high impact but also it can fit within this eight month and we have mental tours which are associated with it um so just to say the timing for proposing your idea would be when you get to the final pool but I would also say the whole program is being geared towards making sure that we've scoped a lot of proposals in advance um so yeah it's a balance but um I hope that gave some insight into that question Aisha asked what is expected expected output from the selected Scholars at the end of the program um so we really want to support you in having a research artifact like where where whether that be a top tier publication or a technical blog post but the emphasis is it is in submitting for publication works at the end of it so I think that we are scoping the proposals with the view that they should have scientific Merit and be publishable um I hope that answered this one so uh Jose says I'm a full-time student outside of Summers will I be able to participate in the program no uh unfortunately I think that our intent is that we um we really support people who can do this full-time just because it is a short time it's like eight months to iterate end to end on a project and so we want to make sure we're giving it to people who can really leverage that opportunity um so haresh says I'm in a Masters program do I have to show proof I can pause my degree with application um so if you can pause your degree for eight months uh you should feel welcome to apply um I would say if I don't know what the proof is but uh Ellie go for it I would say you you don't need to to give us give us proof you don't need to show us the receipts in the application process but if that's something you're interested in doing that should be a a very serious conversation you have with your graduate program have a chat with your grad program coordinator about whether or not that's feasible for you um and if you are a successful applicant just we can we can help you with that but yeah just think really carefully in advance about whether that's the right move for you but we don't need to see the paperwork for it that's totally fine um here's an anonymous attorney do you welcome people into a quantitative research background for example law and history students so we do have a technical take-home I would say if you feel comfortable with that technical takedown you're probably going to feel comfortable in this program if you don't then this might not be the right program for your background but we have no explicit Criterion that you know that you have to come from a certain background in fact um I think part of our goal is to encourage people who are coming from many different backgrounds we just want to be realistic about what what type of skill level we would expect for someone to be able to really enjoy the program and feel like they're able to contribute um and I just add to that too if if you are from a non-quantitative research background and you get to that take-home test you go uh okay I'm not super comfortable with this but I'm still curious and I still want to get involved our community is a great place to start so the application I believe Madeleine has posted it but if you are wanting to to learn more about ml research and connect with that Community join the core AI Discord that's a great place to start as well that was great I I think that's a great suggestion from Ellie David says uh I am a master of science part of my program you should complete a research internship made to December uh no it's not possible to start the Scholars Program May everyone starts at the same time the main reason is that we want people to have a cohort and friendship amongst the scholars and part of that story at the same time ending at the same time so this is part of a commitment that there's also a peer group within the program so alas it's not possible yeah and I think there are a couple of related questions to that about pairing this as an internship program for the purposes of meeting an academic qualification it's not certified as that it is a standalone program so like the similar comment about pausing a program to participate in the Scholars Program that's a conversation that you should be having with whoever your program coordinator is but if you're looking for a program to fulfill a specific internship designation in your degree we are not quite that opportunity for you yeah 10 says I published a Nordic Chi and interactive media experience I only have my PhD when the program starts video production tools with AI do I still qualify for the position what's it possible to start a month late my job is three months long so it's not possible to start late uh I don't really know just from that sentence whether you would qualify or not this relates to I have a background in as a ml scientist at a big tech company and there's another question like I've been working in NLP so if you've been working with machine learning and applied setting and you've been doing an LPN applied setting you're still welcome to apply for this program our goal is to really bring people at the beginning of their research Journey so one Criterion is you cannot have published in machine learning before but if you've been doing applied machine learning and applied NLP you're very welcome to join I feel like you would still learn a lot about the publication process and doing research and how that differs from your day-to-day applied so those types of applications are still very welcome so this relates to Anonymous activity if one has applied NLP experience not research without be okay 100 that's part of our goal is to support people who are coming and when zero research experience who want to really experience the research side and to publish so that's very welcome Maria has a great question is this open for people outside the USA and Venezuelan yes 100 we're a remote vote first and that's very intentional like we want to support Talent all over the world and so we just can support relocation because it's a very short program but that being said we're really going above and beyond to support you having a full-time you know a full-time eight-month position wherever you are and so you can apply from Venezuela uh 10 says I've applied for a Discord a few weeks ago and haven't heard back okay uh you should email info at 4ai and I think Madeline can help sort out and figure out maybe why that was missed um so Curtis says how strongly would you consider candidates with several years of software engineering experience but no direct amount yeah I think that's great again this is the type of candidate we want to support um because our goal is really that we're the first door that that opens for your research journey and one of the big blockers to entry points right now is that there's very few entry points into machine learning research in particular um so if you have applied experience that's great I think it would you're very welcome to apply to this program Alessia says um I have some experience with research in a single startup a specific topic no publication just internal reports that's a strong point I mean if you have no Publications that's exactly what we're hoping to support so I would even say you know you can say that in your personal statement what has inspired you to think more about research in particular and you can speak to that um and start crafting your personal statement with that in mind so um Ellie have you spied any you want to answer about logistics and just see the recurring questions about relocation and work permit so again just to emphasize it is remote first and it is a very tight opportunity so no we can't support relocation um I'm I'm going to try to find this in but there was a question of you know I'm I think I can manage the time between a full-time academic program and being able to do this I'm I'm gonna really strongly caution against that um my background is working with with undergraduate students and having conversations about time management and how much you can take on this is going to be an intense program it is very immersive and we want to make sure that you have the time and space to be successful on This research project so if you've got other full-time commitments I don't think that this is the right opportunity right now keep an eye out for future cohorts but don't don't don't overbook yourself that's probably more more than you want to take on at this point uh Anonymous attendee says does participation in the program require work permit in Canada in the U.S no so this is partly um oh we've lost Ellie well hopefully she'll come back I think but we've lost her for a second um there's Ellie um so um no it doesn't require work permit in Canada or the US that's partly on motivation is that because we really want to really support Talent all over the world that's partly why we're trying to really put a lot of effort into being remote first um so uh so yishun says international student I think we've answered this so this is the we can't do part-time and maybe Ellie can you go through and clean out the ones that are we feel like have been answered in some way um so let's see are there any strict age requirements no that would be very odd if we had age requirements um I I guess uh technically you would have to see minimum age requirements uh I don't know you have to be you'd have to be of of the age like the legal minimum age to work in your country your country yeah uh but I don't have enough context about so let's yeah that's probably not a question we can answer here um so let's see I've uh so here's some more uh Elio you just running through and taking care of ones that have already been answered yeah yeah so I'm trying to clear these out you got awesome questions we've gone through 56 so far this is great um I am going to pick one up about how to submit a great resume because we haven't explicitly touched on the resume um there is a component in the application that is you know what I would say the standard stuff letting us know you know contact information that sort of thing the same advice for a great personal statement also applies to a great resume it's really clear it's very direct um don't go overboard with the bells and whistles on on fancy formatting and colors and fonts you want to present the information as clearly and directly as you can wherever possible give us give us examples give us links to projects that you've worked on show off show us why you're fantastic in everything that you've worked on and why you think that you would be a great fit for this program but again go for clarity go for something that is going to be a really efficient Showcase of who you are and your skills and if you are really really new and if you don't have a lot of let's say formal work experience that is okay we definitely want to see your application that's where writing a really strong personal statement that area where you have control that's going to be very helpful to you uh so there's a few questions here uh so there's one which is I'm currently working on a paper now um uh sorry I've missed it it's moving I'm currently working out people now does that count no so if it hasn't been published it doesn't count it's another one about bachelor's thesis that also doesn't count there's a lot about pay how much we paid uh so this is an entry-level role it's paid monthly uh and it's commensurate with how we would think about like uh an intern style role it is paid based on industry standards so I I think particularly since we're being remote for us to it I think that we'll we'll be benchmarking to our current um intern type girls um I can share the specifics mainly because we I think that's a conversation when we enter the final rounds of the process um but we are confident that we're compensating at a reasonable level for this role and for the eight months and it's a monthly salary so it's not a stipend and so you're paid for all the hours that you work because I also saw a question about stipend um so let's see I have a background as an ml scientist at a big tech company how would the day-to-day of the scholar program be different why are the expected outcomes uh so the day-to-day would be different uh I don't know what tech company you work on um I expect that it's more to do with the outcomes so you'll be paired with this proposal so you'll be working with your with the assigned mentors of The Proposal as well as you'll be working towards like a publication outcome um so the expected outcome would be to share both your findings of your proposal as well as to share your um your code or whatever other artifacts that you have at the end um let's see so anonymously to me I'm applying for a master's program of goal 2383 can I apply for this program to get research experience in ml yeah I think those dates align so I would recommend you reply I think that's part of the goal is like we want to help people on their next step afterwards and so yep I think that's a good idea um will this opportunity be offered again in future years yes so I would definitely recommend part of this is even for those who pursue application and don't get in this time I'm always a strong I always really encourage people to treat it as an experience and part of your journey and I think part of that is that we'll offer this again and you know this is part of starting to submit and getting familiar with the process um and let's see so Anonymous attendee says I'm a background software engineer I've been learning about ML and being between applying for career Ai and career exercise program um is a techno experience very quiet very different for these um so first of all the Scottish program is longer it's eight months versus an internship which is shorter the secondly the Scholars Program is focused on Publications whereas the typical internship program you'll be working with our applied product teams and so be more focused on research because a lot of these questions of a novel but research in production so you wouldn't necessarily publish at the end of it so those are two differences but in many ways what's great is I encourage you to apply for both like why not I think that's a great experience um one thing that fun is that I don't think the technical experience would be very different like in many ways ours might be in many ways more Broad in the sense that we only really have all Criterion are quite explicit and upfront so we have this technical take-home whereas I think for our regular internships you Google go in and you'll do a technical interview whereas we have shifted the emphasis to a take-home and we've also shifted the emphasis to the personal statement um but we're looking for the same things for culture fit I mean like a lot of our culture we're really proud of the fact that we're very collaborative we care a lot about really curiosity driven exploration but also delivering technology that works for everyone so those culture fit parts will be very similar um so how much knowledge and amount go ahead Ellie I was going to say because I see there are a couple questions so uh nirjan can you explain a bit more about the video interview and I believe Paul asked does the application process continue after the video interview or is this the last step so the video interview it's it is asynchronous it's a very short video clip and you'd be invited to participate in that process so we will review sort of stage one of the application which is the job application that you submit through our career site that's the personal statement that's the take-home challenge that's the link to your resume any relevant examples we take a look at that first to make sure that you've got strong enough skills that we think you're going to be good fit for the program we have a sense of what you're hoping to get out of it then you proceed to the video interview you get a separate invitation to participate in that you'll be given a set of questions you'll select one of the questions to respond to and I'm being intentionally vague about those questions because they are going to be part of the application process but you pick one to answer in a five minute video and that video we just want to make sure that it is clear it's genuine it's an authentic response to the question prompt so you don't need to have the most intense lighting setup although if you do have one of those great happy to see it um but we're looking for a genuine and thoughtful response once you submit the video portion of the interview that will be considered holistically as part of your application and then all the applications will be reviewed as full um as a full package once the application closes and we begin that review process after it closes on November 7th and that's so we can make offers before the end of the year yeah this relates to a question from Anonymous attendee will we be signing a contract when you join yes it's a full-time contract for eight months and so you'll be paid on a monthly basis you'll get a lot of the benefits that we give to like off you know interns and full-time employees so yes it is a contract-based role um so related to that though I think it's worth pointing out Ellie that there is a matching stage after the video interview so people have the chance like we'll we'll have a final pool and that's where there'll be a matching like proposers will be May reach out and schedule interviews and so um I think that's the part where we'll be doing pairing and figuring out this is the part where you know for those of the people who are saying I have a brilliant idea that's the part where you can get in The Fray throw it out there and then also get a sense of the existing proposals and ultimately make it cool as this for you because remember you're deciding on us as well and our program as well and that's also where you'll get a sense of what what leads associated with what proposed also you know who you would work with so I think that's another way where you can weigh in and see is this opportunity for me so um let's see we've answered a lot of questions so we have five minutes so uh says though I think this is worth clearing up it's a video do you know so Ellie will be reaching out iteratively so she actually is probably going to start sending requests this week for a few people who have already said like but I guess it at the time is not exact but she'll be doing on a rolling basis so you'll start to see requests for videos coming in if you haven't received a request it doesn't mean that you're not going to be selected it just means like you know Ellie's one person and she's trying to figure out to get through everything so um but yes and yeah as we said multiple times submit early um that that makes that makes your life easier because then your application is in and you get to enjoy the thrill of completing that um and then that helps us review your application sooner as well so with the application results we announced in advance give it to give the enough time for the candidate to switch roles um I think Kelly talked to this our goal is to give out offers in early December so and the program is going to start early next year so um I think that depends on your your current role and it depends on what country you're in like how much advance notice you need to give but our hope is that we're going to be saying that the successful applicants with information they need to have um enough time to switch comfortably and be ready for the program so uh what happens if the group assigns The Proposal doesn't finish the research in time honestly research is uh it's hard to precisely determine so some research directions are riskier than others and a part of uh I think what we'll figure out is just be assessing throughout where the work is and where so why does it not fit maybe it just didn't work in which case I think our goal is to pair uh to figure out well how can we pivot the research idea but if it is working and it just doesn't finish within the eighth months that's something we need to assess closer to the end but I think that's a little bit beyond the step of where we are now um it's a good question but it's probably more to do with we were trying to figure out for that group what they want is the outcome and try and figure out how we can support that whether that's providing compute beyond the program or thinking about ways that we can support it beyond the program but the program is eight months so I just want to be a friend about that it's an eight-month experience in terms of the paid and contract and being part of the full-time team um okay so let's see we have two minutes Ellie what should we prioritize um let's see I can also see the Madeline's typing some answers to questions too this is great again just to reiterate some Global themes that have come up here if you know use the take-home test as your the take-home challenge as your litmus test for whether or not you're comfortable in this space so if you don't have an explicit academic or industry background in ml that's not necessarily a barrier to you applying take a good look at the take-home Challenge and if you feel comfortable tackling that then this could be a really great program for you we'd really love to see your application um it is remote first and it is a full-time commitment so don't try to layer multiple things together you're not setting yourself up for Success this is going to be a very you know rewarding and intense program so we want to make sure that you have the time and space to participate really fully um there's a good question here whether it be the opportunities to attend ml conferences yes yeah so you can attend ml conferences during that period there will be we'll try and prioritize at least one conference and especially if you're publishing or submitting work will prioritize those uh so if you're submitting work you can go attend the conference that you submit to um so let's see um I think we should pause there I think there were a lot of questions I think we have one minute left I would say uh uh Last Words uh this is fun you already showed up to the info session that makes you already part of a super motivated group that's really exciting and I think that I'm super excited to meet some of you down the road and uh really excited to see your applications what has inspired you to begin your research Journey so congrats on making the first step just coming to this info session yeah absolutely it puts you kind of in a group already who cares deeply and wants to participate in this program so thanks everyone yeah thank you so much for joining us today thank you for your questions they're great I know we didn't get to all of them but hopefully we gave you a really strong sense of what to expect and and how to you know engage with the program and like Sarah said we can't wait to meet you we'd love to see you in the future uh the application for the cohere for AI Scholars Program is open until November 7th uh today is a beautiful day to start working on that application if you haven't already and to submit so that we can take a look at all of the exciting things you've worked on and what you're hoping to accomplish with us at cohere for AI so thank you everyone for joining us thank you Madeline for helping to manage the chat and thank you Sarah for leading our q a that was great perfect thanks everyone bye have a great day