Allen Institute for AI Reviews

Pros

My first manager at AI2 would often ask people "What are you optimizing for?" in many different contexts (not just machine learning). This was meant to force people to consider what they were really trying to accomplish. When I think about what AI2 optimizes for is assembling an extraordinary team that produces AI applications, libraries and research that benefit humanity in a wide variety of ways. They are well funded, which meant our team was able to focus on the greater impact our projects would have on the AI community and not about revenue. Hiring is done in a unique way relative to many other organizations. Every FTE can see interview loop feedback for prospective candidates and every FTE has an opportunity to advocate for a new hire (even if they were not on the interview loop). I was blown away when I saw this for the first time. Even if I had no feedback for a candidate, having the opportunity from day 1 to influence the team meant a lot. I think this process has been key to consistently creating great teams. Every person I worked with was exceptional across all parts of the org (hr, it, ao, engineering, research, etc.) - they all truly cared about helping you with whatever you needed. This level of transparency didn't stop at hiring - I felt like any question you had about the company was on the table: funding, mission, projects, personnel, etc. Overall, I am grateful for having the opportunity to work at AI2. I learned an enormous amount about how great research is produced and how critical it is to have an exceptional team to achieve that goal.

Cons

no cons come to mind

Pros

Great benefits and work from home support

Cons

small company soa limited amount of teams if you like to switch around

Pros

I started working at AI2 during Covid-19 and before I started my job I was expecting to receive my green card. Therefore in my application form, I mentioned that I do not need any sponsorship. However, due to the backlog of applications at USCIS, I realized I would need sponsorship for work authorization. When I talked to the HR and legal team at AI2, even though this was contradicting what I had mentioned in my original application, they were nothing but supportive. They immediately applied for a non-profit H1B for me without hesitation. They covered all the expenses and took care of the paperwork. I got my visa within two weeks which resulted in no interruption in my work. The team took care of everything on my behalf and the process went so smoothly that overall took me 5-10 minutes (and I think several days of the HR team!). Contrasting this support to what I saw from other companies makes me appreciate AI2 more than ever (For e.g., a big corporation asked me to decline their offer because of my citizenship! They didn't even want to deal with retracting the offer.).

Cons

Initially, AI2 was a small non-profit company but after expanding the teams as well as acquiring Vulcan's environmental big-data teams, there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration and working on AI for common good projects.

Pros

Really Great place to work.

Cons

No cons come to mind.

Pros

Collaborative, intellectually curious environment Research freedom Great office, free lunches, etc.

Cons

Unstructured environment could be a con for some people

Pros

The Allen Institute for AI (AI2) really is a special place to work. It offers a unique opportunity to work with some of the world's best in natural language processing, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. AI2 has a strong culture of learning and no matter what role you have here, you'll find yourself growing everyday. I held roles in both engineering and research and always found this to be true. For researchers: AI2 provides an unparalleled environment for magnifying the impact of your work. Creating a dataset? Launch a leaderboard! Building a new model? Make a demo! The software, infrastructure, and colleagues available to you at AI2 supports, encourages, and makes it incredibly easy to go the extra mile with your work. For engineers: AI2 offers the opportunity to tackle interesting problems at a scale where every engineer counts. You'll directly see the impact of the work you do: building products, running services, supporting research. In addition, you'll get regular exposure to the cutting edge of AI, as well as amazing engineering colleagues. Since the institute is a nonprofit driven by its mission (AI for the common good), the organization's goals align well with what I've often found motivates myself and other passionate engineers: wanting to build things that help people.

Cons

It's not quite a con, but important to be aware of: AI2 is a highly collaborative organization which plans its work around central themes and goals. AI2 takes a mission-driven approach to setting research directions, organizing its efforts around the different projects (Aristo, Semantic Scholar, Mosaic, etc). To be successful here, you must be excited to contribute to the long term goals represented by these projects. You should be able to shape your work around these big picture visions.

Pros

For undergraduates who (like me) are interested in research about applications of machine learning to NLP and computer vision, it is difficult to imagine a better position than the PYI program at AI2. There is a great deal of freedom with respect to research topics, ample computing and data annotation resources, and great access to highly competent senior researchers and even faculty members at leading academic institutions. You are encouraged to publish your research, which is helpful both for graduate admissions and (potentially) for industry jobs. AI2 has many great benefits like other tech employers, including paid conference expenses when you have published your work.

Cons

Perhaps one con is that there is not necessarily a clear path of advancement within AI2 at the conclusion of the PYI program (as far as I can tell). However, the duration of the PYI program is flexible, which is very nice.

Pros

The people. Brilliant, generally very friendly, and full of stimulating conversation.

Cons

Atmosphere and office can be a a little boring or dry.