Senior Mathematical Problem Creator (Part-Time/Full-Time Contractor Positions)
Contractor Positions
Key Responsibilities
- Writing questions that will be included in the benchmark: this will be the core responsibility of all question authors.
- Reviewing and validating questions written by other question authors before these questions can be included in the benchmark. This is essential to ensure a low rate of error in question statements and solutions.
- Collaborating with other question authors when necessary, for example to ensure similar questions are not submitted by multiple authors or to generate better questions by working as a team.
- Ensuring that the questions and their answers are not posted anywhere such that they would have a substantial chance of appearing in the training dataset of future AI models. Our guidelines require avoiding any platform that could store the questions or their answers on third-party servers: Slack, Discord, Google Drive, et cetera. Question authors will be expected to comply with these security guidelines.
1. Project-Based Question Contributor
Compensation
- Guaranteed Payment: At least $300-$500 per problem submitted, for up to 5 problems.
- High-Quality Bonus: Each question will be evaluated for its difficulty and quality, and up to $1,000 will be paid for an exceptionally involved problem.
- Co-authorship: Contributors who significantly enhance the benchmark will be eligible for co-authorship in resulting publications (conditional on merit of contribution such as number of questions, difficulty, quality, or topic).
- Possible Extension: After 5 problems, this offer may be extended by the period or number of questions determined by Epoch AI.
- Additional Submissions: If this offer isn’t extended, the question contributor may still continue to submit questions to the benchmark without a guaranteed payment. Any questions that are accepted into the benchmark will be compensated with between $300 and $1,000 USD each, depending on Epoch AI's assessment of the question’s difficulty.
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Currency Flexibility: Payments aren't restricted to USD and can be made in different currencies depending on the location of contributors.
2. Full-Time Question Contributor
Compensation
- Base Monthly Payment: $2,000 USD for full-time contributors.
- Performance-Based Bonus: Rates starting from $300 USD per question for the easiest questions meeting our criteria and up to $1,000 USD per question for the most difficult questions.
- Co-authorship: Contributors who significantly enhance the benchmark will be eligible for co-authorship in resulting publications (conditional on merit of contribution such as number of questions, difficulty, quality, or topic).
- Expected Contribution: Throughout the project's duration of 2-4 months, we anticipate each full-time question author to contribute a total of 20-75 questions to the benchmark.
- Anticipated Monthly Earnings: Based on our observations during this project’s pilot, we anticipate that a question author working full-time should be able to receive a payment in the amount of approximately $10,000 each month, though this is only an average estimate.
- Currency Flexibility: Payments aren't restricted to USD and can be made in different currencies depending on the location of contributors.
What We Are Looking For
Requirements
- Technical expertise in some branch of mathematics.
- At least a Ph.D. level background in mathematics. This condition doesn’t mean a viable candidate must have a Ph.D. in mathematics, but if they don’t, we expect candidates to provide independent proof of an equivalent level of background alongside their application.
- Experience solving difficult math problems which require the use of programming. For example, past experience with solving recent Project Euler problems would suffice.
Nice to have
- Current or former academic position at a university (e.g., professor, lecturer, researcher).
- Publication history in peer-reviewed mathematical journals.
- An impressive track record in renowned mathematics competitions. Examples include being an IMO gold medalist or a Putnam Fellow.
- Past experience with writing questions for challenging math competitions such as the IMO, the Putnam, or the Miklós Schweitzer Competition.
- A basic level of proficiency with the Python programming language, as solutions for problems requiring programming will be written in Python.
- Experience in developing curriculum or assessment materials for advanced mathematics courses (preferably graduate level).
About Epoch AI
Additional information
- Please email careers@epochai.org if you have any questions about this role or accessibility requests.
- Please specify which role you are interested in (Full-Time Question Contributor, Project-Based Question Contributor, or both) when submitting your application.
- Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional-level English proficiency.
- Epoch AI is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community where you can thrive and do your best work. We’re also committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity, or any other background.
- Epoch AI is fiscally sponsored by Rethink Priorities.
About Epoch AI
- Studied alternatives to QALYs for measuring wellbeing
- Published reviews of lead reduction policy, charter cities, and agricultural land reform
- Conducted polls, surveys, and message testing to better understand how the public thinks about animal welfare and other important topics
- Brought to light the important and neglected area of invertebrate welfare
- Investigated nuclear war as a possible existential risk, quantitatively modeled the expected harm from various nuclear war scenarios, and explored some interventions for reducing this risk
- And much much more!
- You can review our public work to date here
Our Hiring Process
If there isn’t a role available that aligns with your interests and expertise, we still want to hear from you. At a minimum, we'll keep your information on file, and let you know about future roles you might be a good fit for.