PhD Student in Data attribution for large language models at IT University of Copenhagen

The IT University of Copenhagen invites highly motivated individuals to apply for a PhD position, to start during 2025. The earliest possible starting date is January 1.

The IT University’s vision is to create and share knowledge that is profound and leads to groundbreaking information technology and services for the benefit of humanity. The Computer Science Department seeks to conduct research and education that are both foundational and have an impact on industry and society.

Job description
Recent generative systems based on pre-trained language models are remarkably fluent, but this is achieved by training on vast amounts of data under the doctrine of ‘fair use’. The current practices do not ensure proper attribution to the original creators of the data used for training. There also is little directed effort on creating frameworks that would ensure attribution, and ideally also compensation for the creators.

This project will focus on developing methods for data attribution for large language models, as well as a conceptual framework for the kinds of references that are needed and expected by the creator community. It will support 2 PhD students and a postdoc. The group currently has 1 more postdoc and 3 PhD students, working on various aspects of interpretability and analysis of large language models.

The ideal candidate will have a solid background in Computational Linguistics/Natural Language Processing, as well as core skills in programming in Python and machine learning. Prior experience with relevant statistical methods such as influence functions, semantic search over large-scale text databases, or information retrieval is advantageous. Other relevant areas include explainable summarization, fact-checking, memorization, citation analysis. Two positions are available.

The research environment
The NLPnorth research group is currently the largest in Denmark, with 5 faculty working on various aspects of NLP. The candidate will also be a member of the national Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence, a 5-university Danish research endeavor. Both the center and research group are highly international and well-funded, working on a broad range of research topics.

The main supervisor will be Associate Professor Anna Rogers. This project has planned collaborations with Kyle Lo (Allen Institute for AI), Sherry Tongshuang Wu (HCI, Carnegie Mellon University), Japan’s leading supercomputing center RIKEN-CSS, and the ML and Society team at HuggingFace.

General information
The IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) is a teaching and research-based tertiary institution concerned with information technology (IT) and the opportunities it offers. The IT University has more than 160 full-time Faculty members. Research and teaching in information technology span all academic activities that involve computers including computer science, information and media sciences, humanities and social sciences, business impact, and the commercialization of IT.

About the Computer Science Department
The ITU Computer Science Department conducts research in all aspects of computer science and data science, including algorithms, databases, government IT, machine learning, natural language processing, network science, optimization, programming languages, quantum computing, robotics, security, semantics, software engineering, software verification, type theory, and more, as well as a range of applications. The department has 55 permanent faculty, 65 PhDs and postdocs, as well as other staff. It is responsible for the IT University's most technical education programs BSc Software Development, BSc Data Science, MSc Computer Science, MSc Data Science, and MSc Software Design.

Working at the IT University
Located in modern architecture, a 6-minute metro ride from the center of Copenhagen, the IT University offers an informal working environment, a varied everyday life, and a highly motivated, ambitious, competent, and diverse international faculty, with PhD degrees from 17 different countries. The IT University is an equal opportunity employer and prides itself in actively and successfully pursuing an improved gender balance among students and faculty.

Working in Copenhagen
Copenhagen has a solid educational system, a rich cultural life, universal healthcare, good childcare, and well-functioning infrastructure. It is among the world’s most livable cities according to the Economist Global Liveability Index, and it will be a good experience for you and your family. Here you can find some reflections by foreign PhD students in the NLPNorth research group.

Salary and terms of employment
Appointment and salary will be in accordance with the Ministry of Taxation’s agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) and job structure for academic staff at Universities.

In Denmark, PhD programs are fixed term (3 years), but it is possible to extent this by doing internships.

Qualification Requirements
The following qualifications are required:

• 3 year programme: candidates should have a MSc ( 120ECTS or equivalent)
• 4 year programme: candidates should have a BSc and one year of university studies at Master level

The applicants will be employed and enrolled at the ITU University for 3 or 4 years depending on the university degree level of the applicant.

Application
The application and all other documents ought to be in English and must include:

• A motivated application (cover letter), including a detailed description of your qualifications
• A full CV, including name, address, phone number, e-mail, previous and present employment and academic background
• Documentation of academic degrees (copy of degree certificates etc.)
• A statement of purpose indicating the direction for the project that the candidate would like to undertake, and the preferred starting date
• A short statement of relevant expertise/experience, if any (up to 1 page). It is possible to include links to or enclose relevant scientific publications and/or master thesis, written by the applicant.

Applications without the above-mentioned required documents will not be assessed.

The applicant will be accessed according to the Appointment Order from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of 13 March 2012.

The IT University may use shortlisting in connection with the recruitment process. In case of shortlisting, the Chair of the hiring committee selects applicants for assessment in consultation with the hiring committee after the application deadline. All applicants are notified whether their application has been passed for assessment. The shortlisting of candidates for assessment is based on the criteria in the job posting.

Further information
Questions about the positions can be directed to Associate Professor Anna Rogers, IT University of Copenhagen, [email protected]. Early contact with our faculty staff is encouraged.

Questions related to the application procedure may be directed to HR, [email protected].

Application procedure
You can only apply for this position through our e-recruitment system. Apply by pressing the button "Apply for position" in the job announcement on our website.

Please read the guidelines for applicants carefully before filling in the application form. You can see the guidelines through this link.

The IT University might upon request in the interview process contact 1-2 references.

Please note that all application material will be destroyed after the assessment.

Application deadline: 15 November 2024, at 23:59 CET.
Applications/enclosures received at ITU after the application deadline will not be taken into consideration. If you apply, it is your responsibility to ensure that it arrives before the deadline so please allow sufficient time for upload of publications and other documents.

The IT University invites all qualified researchers regardless of age, gender, religious affiliation or ethnic background to apply for the positions.

Department: Rued Langgaards Vej 7, København S

Lokation: Institutet - Institut for Datalogi