Application Guide

How to Apply for [Expression of Interest] Research Scientist/Engineer, Honesty

at Anthropic

🏢 About Anthropic

Anthropic is a frontier AI research company focused specifically on AI safety, alignment, and security, distinguishing itself from general AI labs by its explicit mission to develop reliable and honest AI systems. The company maintains a cautious approach to AI development, as evidenced by their nuanced career guidance that acknowledges potential ethical concerns about working at frontier AI labs. This creates a unique environment for researchers who want to work on AI safety as their primary focus rather than as a secondary consideration.

About This Role

This Research Scientist/Engineer role focuses specifically on improving AI honesty through technical interventions like data curation pipelines, hallucination detection classifiers, and RL environments that reward truthful outputs. The work directly addresses one of the most critical challenges in current AI systems—ensuring models make accurate, verifiable claims rather than plausible-sounding fabrications. This role is impactful because it contributes to building AI systems that can be trusted with important decisions and information dissemination.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might involve designing experiments to test new honesty classifiers, analyzing results from human feedback collection on model miscalibrations, and implementing improvements to data curation pipelines that filter training data for accuracy. You'd collaborate with researchers to refine evaluation frameworks while developing tools that help human evaluators assess model outputs more efficiently for truthfulness.

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🎯 Who Anthropic Is Looking For

  • Has advanced degree (MS/PhD) with hands-on experience in language model finetuning and classifier training, not just theoretical knowledge
  • Demonstrates practical experience with data curation pipelines and evaluation frameworks specifically for measuring model accuracy and calibration
  • Shows genuine concern for AI safety through previous projects, publications, or public writing about honesty, reliability, or alignment challenges
  • Possesses strong Python skills combined with experimental design experience that goes beyond standard ML implementations to novel honesty-focused approaches

📝 Tips for Applying to Anthropic

1

Highlight specific projects where you improved model accuracy or reduced hallucinations, quantifying results with metrics like calibration error rates or human evaluation scores

2

Demonstrate familiarity with Anthropic's research papers on Constitutional AI and honesty, referencing specific techniques or findings in your application materials

3

Showcase experience with the exact technologies mentioned: RAG systems, human feedback collection for miscalibration, and RL environments for truthfulness

4

Address the ethical considerations mentioned in their job posting by explaining why you want to work specifically on honesty at a frontier AI lab despite potential concerns

5

Include concrete examples of statistical analysis you've performed to measure improvements in model calibration, not just accuracy metrics

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

['Explain your specific interest in honesty research rather than general AI safety or alignment', 'Describe how your previous work on data curation, classifier training, or evaluation frameworks prepares you for this exact role', "Demonstrate understanding of Anthropic's unique approach to AI development and why their specific focus on safety aligns with your career goals", 'Provide a brief example of how you would approach one of the specific responsibilities, like designing a novel data curation pipeline for accuracy verification']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read Anthropic's research papers on Constitutional AI and their technical approach to AI safety
  • → Study their public communications about responsible AI development and their unique positioning in the AI landscape
  • → Review their technical blog posts and publications related to honesty, calibration, and evaluation methodologies
  • → Understand their nuanced stance on AI career ethics as referenced in their job posting link to 80,000 Hours
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💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Technical deep dive into your experience with language model finetuning for honesty-related objectives
2 Design questions about creating evaluation frameworks specifically for measuring model truthfulness and calibration
3 Discussion of Anthropic's Constitutional AI approach and how you would extend it for honesty improvements
4 Case study: How would you design an RL environment to reward truthful outputs while avoiding reward hacking?
5 Questions about your statistical analysis approach for measuring improvements in model calibration and accuracy
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Focusing only on general ML experience without highlighting specific work on accuracy, calibration, or honesty
  • Treating this as just another ML research role without addressing the specific AI safety and honesty focus
  • Failing to demonstrate understanding of the practical challenges of implementing honesty mechanisms in production systems

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

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Good luck with your application to Anthropic!

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