OpenAI opens 2019 intern, fellow spots for AI newcomers

OpenAI is hanging out the “help wanted” sign for its 2019 Fellows and Interns programs, and the message is unmistakable: they don’t just want polished PhDs. The research lab is actively courting people looking to crash the AI party from other fields.

The Fellow program is a six-month, two-step affair. The February 2019 cohort will spend the first two months grinding through a curriculum cooked up by OpenAI’s own researchers and developing a research proposal. The remaining four months are dedicated to executing that project under a mentor’s watch. The pitch is explicitly for career-switchers, and previous fellows have backgrounds as varied as genetics, physics, and software engineering. A preference is given to those who can commit to joining OpenAI full-time after the stint.

For the Summer 2019 internship, the emphasis shifts to self-direction and practical chops. OpenAI wants people who can not only dream up ideas but also write the code to test them, navigate a shared codebase, and communicate changes clearly. Single-author papers and significant open-source contributions to the machine learning community are shiny gold stars on an application. Interns will contribute to large-scale projects, including robotics, over a minimum of three months starting in May.

The application process is a split track. The Early Decision window for a summer 2019 spot closed way back in November 2018. What’s left is the General Admission rolling process. International candidates without US work authorization have until February 15, 2019, to apply, with decisions landing by March 15. Those with US work authorization get a bit more runway, with the deadline stretching to March 15 and final answers promised by April 15. After that, latecomers get rolled into consideration for future terms. It’s a clear signal that while the summer spots may fill fast, OpenAI is building a pipeline, not just filling a single class.