Research Internship, FlexOlmo

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence • Berkeley, CA

38d • Remote

About The Position

Ai2 is seeking talented and motivated Research Interns to join the FlexOlmo team, working on a series of large language models designed for flexible data use, with a focus on Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), long-context language models (LCLMs), and retrieval. Research Interns will be based in Berkeley, CA. This internship offers a unique opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research in natural language processing and machine learning in an exciting, fast-paced research environment. As a Research Intern, you have the opportunity to: Define and lead a high-impact research project. Train and release leading models. Collaborate with and learn from team members across Ai2. Build open-source software for the research community. Author scientific papers for publication in a high-profile conference or journal. Ai2 Research Internship Information: Duration: 12 weeks Start date: Flexible Candidates: A PhD candidate or a master/undergraduate student with a strong research background We are currently hiring for start dates in 2026. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. ​​Please apply by December 15, 2025 at 11:00pm Pacific Time to be considered for our Spring/Summer 2026 internships. Who We Are: We design new architectures and training methods that help models use data more effectively—through improved training, inference-time conditioning, and retrieval—broadening the types of data they can leverage and ultimately enhancing performance. We also develop scientific methodologies for evaluating and understanding these systems. Our team produces high-impact research and expertly engineered open-source tools that accelerate NLP research worldwide. We lead the FlexOlmo project, whose first release in July 2025 focused on a new Mixture-of-Experts architecture. Looking ahead, we plan to pursue creative, groundbreaking research that delivers scientific insights and practical solutions for building architectures and training methods that unlock the use of large and diverse data sources. Your Next Challenge: Why FlexOlmo? We are building the foundation for research into the next generation of language models designed for flexible data use. FlexOlmo is a small, tightly knit team, giving you the unique opportunity to work closely with team members toward one high-impact project. We encourage open collaboration on intern projects, even with researchers at external institutions. Interns will be based in Berkeley, with opportunities to engage actively with the University of California, Berkeley, and the BAIR lab. Our pay is competitive, and visa sponsorship is available. We are committed to open science and support students freely publishing papers, as exemplified by our first release: FlexOlmo: Open Language Models for Flexible Data Use.

Requirements

• Pursuing a Ph,D. degree in Computer Science or similar field with research experience in machine learning, natural language processing, language and vision, or related areas.
• Outstanding individual contributor (IC) skills, especially with deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch).
• An outstanding publication record at AI-related venues, such as NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, COLM, ACL, EMNLP. We will specifically evaluate the quality of publications in terms of rigor and impact, not the quantity.
• Research experience in areas such as large language models, training dynamics, scaling laws, and data curation.
• Located [or willing to relocate] in Berkley, CA.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with mixture-of-experts, long-context language models, and retrieval is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead a high-impact research project.
• Train and release leading models.
• Collaborate with and learn from team members across Ai2.
• Build open-source software for the research community.
• Author scientific papers for publication in a high-profile conference or journal.

Benefits

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will accrue sick days per year in line with Seattle sick time requirements. If you are usually scheduled to work on a holiday that Ai2 recognizes as a day off, you will be paid for this day.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees