AI for Animals is Hiring a Program Lead

By Constance Li, Hive @ 2024-07-10T20:57 (+21)

Pay: $50,000 - 70,000* a year plus benefits for full time (pro-rated for part-time)

Reports to: Founder of AI for Animals

Location: Remote, Global (San Francisco, US preferred)

Right to work requirements: Must have right to work in the country you are based in at the start of employment. We are unable to provide work visas.

Deadline to apply: August 1, 2024

*salary will depend on need

About the Role: (see video)

This role is a unique opportunity to build the nascent field at the intersection of AI and nonhumans. You will be responsible for cultivating new and existing high-value relationships, continuing to build community and communications infrastructure that can serve as pipelines for talent and information, and making strategic decisions about what programs to prioritize for greatest positive impact.

Originally started in early 2023 as an AI focused channel on the Hive (formerly known as Impactful Animal Advocacy) Slack by Constance Li, AI for Animals has grown from a side project into something that more represents an organization with a website, a coalition, a newsletter, and an international conference/retreat which also included digital minds. The reception to our work has been enthusiastic and we were recently able to get enough funding to start hiring for a full-time role. Previously, the work was mainly done pro bono by the founder. Now we are looking for someone to more formally develop and execute a strategic vision for this project.

AI for Animals is a project by Hive, which is a community building organization for the farmed animal advocacy movement that also grew from a small side project in 2022 to an organization with an international team of 5 backed by funders like Open Philanthropy, Lush, Craigslist, Humane America, and more. Hive consists of a thriving slack community with 2,500+ members, a widely subscribed to movement-centric newsletter, resource guides, and events. We operate through a strategic do-ocracy where each member is given high autonomy to develop their own initiatives.

Why This Matters:

AI is set to transform the world, poised to be a defining technology, but is currently being shaped with minimal consideration for its impact on animal well-being. The foundations established in AI today could have profound implications for animals going forward. There is no other meta group organizing a coalition to represent the interests of animals when it comes to the safety and ethics of AI. 

About the AI Coalition:

• Meets for 1.5 hours every month to share updates, strategize, and create action items out of each meeting
• Channel on the Hive Slack with 100+ members 
• Consists of individuals and groups who are highly motivated and well-positioned to to leverage AI to improve the lives of animals and potentially sentient digital minds. Mostly focused on animals at this point
• Outputs of members have included research papers, lectures, workshops, nonprofits, news/blog articles, and websites

Responsibilities:

• Facilitate monthly online meetings for coalition members to share knowledge and strategize on positively influencing the AI domain for animals and create meeting summaries.
• Make decisions regarding the future of AI for Animals including critical questions such as how much to include digital minds, membership criteria for our coalition, and short/long term strategy.  
• Improve and maintain a tracking system for projects in the AI Coalition (currently on Notion).
• Assist with maintaining and growing the monthly AI and Animals newsletter
• Check in with coalition members to monitor progress, address blockers, and optimize workflows
• Make strategic introductions between members and other stakeholders
• Field building - identify other communities with complementary goals and form collaborative relationship with them
• Streamline and automate workflows as much as practical
• Spearhead the 2025 AI, Animals, and Digital Minds conference/retreat and any related satellite events
• Work closely with the founder, Constance, benefiting from mentorship and gradually increasing autonomy as you grow into the role (est. 6-12 months).
• See Sofia's testimonial of what it has been like working with her as a co-founder for the past year.
• Create and fundraise for the following year’s budget
• Recruit and manage volunteers

Benefits:

• Opportunity for making a significant positive impact for animals and potentially sentient AI
• Founder is based in San Francisco and has a pre-existing network of AI/tech/pro-animal stakeholders that you can easily tap into
• Satisfaction that you are filling a neglected and highly important niche. The decisions you make about early field building can be uniquely high impact down the line
• High autonomy for work schedule, location, and decision making
• Potential for promotion
• Work with the support of the dynamic team at Hive, which includes an in house developer and a communications lead
• Gain experience and develop transferrable career capital through forming connections across academic, nonprofit, government, and for profit sectors

Who we are looking for:

• Passion for Hive’s mission, vision, and values
• Preference for full time availability
• High conscientiousness - able to anticipate contingencies and work independently with minimal management required
• Action-biased - tendency to act on promising opportunities quickly and discontinue programs if not working out
• Baseline knowledge or aptitude for learning about AI systems in order - needed to effectively communicate with technical teams and manage projects
• Excellent project management skills - able to follow through on tasks and organize tracking systems
• People skills - Ability to speak comfortably and engage effectively with a diverse group of stakeholders including some that may work in the animal agriculture industry
• Ability to work at least 50% of the time in time zones compatible with with the US Pacific Time: 15:00 - 5:00 UTC
• Fluent in English with clear written communication
• Well-connected and respected or aspiring to be so in the animal advocacy and digital minds communities
• Reasonably secure financial situation - enough to have the flexibility to navigate potential funding gaps as we build towards long-term sustainability
• Willingness to travel for conferences or community building/networking opportunities (4-8 times a year expected with travel and other expenses covered)
• Proficiency with using Slack, Google Workspace, Google Groups, Asana, Airtable, and Luma (or the ability to learn them very quickly - we'll provide training)

The process will consist of 5 stages as follows: 

• A written application (30-60 min)
• A job specific test task simulating the type of work you’d be doing in the role (1-2 hours - unpaid)
• A non job specific test task for you to analyze your career options (1-2 hours - unpaid)
• An interview with the founder (1 hour)
• Work trial (2-4 weeks, paid at $25/h)

A work contract will be offered after a successful work trial. This will come with a 3-6 month probationary period.