Research Intern – Semantic Machines – Multi-Turn Task-Oriented Dialogue

Research Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized scientists and engineers. Our researchers and engineers pursue innovation in a range of scientific and technical disciplines to help solve complex challenges in diverse fields, including computing, healthcare, economics, and the environment.

Semantic Machines invites research interns to help invent the next generation of task-oriented conversational AI. Program synthesis allows our users to express complex intents and refine them over a series of natural language dialogue turns. These programs connect to real-world APIs, whose results trigger the generation of contextually appropriate natural language responses. Our work focuses on

• Expanding representational capacity
• New open-domain, multimodal, and contextual dialogue experiences
• Rapidly training, modifying, and controlling desired behaviors (using GPT-3, varied annotations, humans in the loop, user feedback, differential privacy)
• Machine learning approaches to support these goals

Responsibilities

Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world’s best researchers, interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Interns not only advance their own careers, but they also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, students are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other interns and researchers, present findings, and contribute to the vibrant life of the community. Research internships are available in all areas of research, and are offered year-round, though they typically begin in the summer.

Qualifications

In addition to the qualifications below, you’ll need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position. After you submit your application, a request for letters may be sent to your list of references on your behalf. Note that reference letters cannot be requested until after you have submitted your application, and furthermore, that they might not be automatically requested for all candidates. You may wish to alert your letter writers in advance, so they will be ready to submit your letter.

Required Qualifications

• Must be currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science or a related STEM field.
• Must have at least 1 year of experience with natural language processing and/or machine learning.

Interns are expected to be physically located in their manager’s Microsoft worksite location for the duration of their internship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Track record of publications in top NLP or ML venues
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Familiarity with dialogue systems, knowledge representation, declarative methods, and/or programming languages
• Familiarity with structured prediction, speech processing, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and/or human-in-the-loop ML
• Experience with deep learning software platforms, such as PyTorch or TensorFlow

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.