In the 2022 Fall Jobs Post I talked about the effect of generative AI and that was two weeks before Open AI released ChatGPT to the public. A year later, how will AI change CS faculty hiring? Not much this year but change will come soon enough.
CS enrollment remains strong and computer science departments have not been able to keep up with the demand. Many see programming, rightly or wrongly, as one of the first careers that AI will displace, which may reduce enrollment in the future, as offshoring fears drove CS enrollment down 20 years ago. There will be newish majors, whether Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning or something else that will draw students away from traditional CS degrees. But for now many CS departments still need to grow their faculty.
Having some knowledge and being willing to teach ML will definitely help in the job search but I expect we'll see demand in all areas, including theoretical computer science. There will also be more people on the market, especially as the major tech leaders aren't yet brought back hiring in CS to its previous levels.
Should you use AI to help you apply? I wouldn't use AI to write your personal statement or other materials--it's style is just too recognizable. But do use AI to read over what you wrote and give suggestions. You might be surprised on what it recommends.
CS departments are not yet using AI to screen faculty job applications. So you are writing for humans. There are many applicants so focus on what makes you stand out.
As always, have a well-designed web page with all your job materials. Make sure your Google Scholar and LinkedIn pages are accurate and up to date. Add yourself you the CRA's CV Database.
Some departments are starting the search earlier, so don't delay your applications.
Most CS faculty jobs are posted to the CRA and ACM. The CRA focuses on jobs for PhDs, the ACM mixes it up with general industry jobs. For theorists, check out TCS Jobs and Theory Announcements.
If you have a job to announce, please post to the above and/or feel free to leave a comment on this post.
Penn CIS is hiring across all areas. But there is also another separate call that folks should be aware of, as part of the new "IDEAS" initiative: https://apply.interfolio.com/133592 In particular, one of the focus areas is "Trustworthy AI/ML/DS", which I think is broad enough to include certain kinds of theory.
ReplyDeleteMichigan CSE is always looking to hire in theory, and in the past 4 years alone, we've had an exponential growth: https://cse.engin.umich.edu/research/research-areas/theory-of-computation/
ReplyDeleteBU is hiring through two calls. The first is an "AI Cluster hire": you apply to the cluster and then get sorted into the department they find most appropriate, but you can mark your preferences. CS is hiring two people through this and our interdisciplinary Computing & Data Sciences unit (CDS) is hiring one.
ReplyDeletehttps://academicjobsonline.org/ajo?joblist---4072-25744
Then CDS is hiring two more at assistant and one at associate level through the following call, where ML theory and socially-aware theory fit the call.
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo?joblist---4072-25801
The School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney is hiring (tenure-track, all levels) in all areas of CS, including theory. The deadline is Nov 30: https://usyd.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USYD_EXTERNAL_CAREER_SITE/details/Multiple-Continuing–Tenure-Track–Academic-Positions–School-of-Computer-Science_0111116-2
ReplyDeleteIt seems frankly ridiculous that we can envision there can be theoretical underpinnings for ML whose sole claim to fame is that all knowledge can be derived from tons and tons of "data";
ReplyDeleteif you feed ML all the religious texts from all the different human sects; the ML model will simply regurgitate whatever nonsense is filled in those texts.
if you feed ML all the Feynmann lectures it will fail to comprehend what "e^{i \theta} = \cos(\theta) + i \sin(\theta)" captures at a fundamental level, but it will faithfully regurgitate that equation when prompted "what's the most beautiful equation?".
ML's worse than garbage-in garbage-out; except that there are a huge army of human annotators working behind the scenes (and smart coders as well) to ensure these ML models have the priors required for the end-users to get the appropriate results.
Space 2011 sounds like me. Except that I think that there's something to "ML" (it's probably just a form of multi-dimensional statistical analysis; nothing to do with "learning"). IMHO, there probably is some interesting math and comp. sci. there, except that when we figure it out, we'll realize that it's not "AI" or "learning" but just a way of using SIMD computation to solve certain classes of problems.
ReplyDeleteWhatever, I'm not the only one* who thinks the current round of AI is problematic. For example, the game of processing sequences of undefined tokens and calling that "language" is seriously silly. So it's no surprise that LLMs have all sorts of problems.
Which is why my advice to people starting a career is that they really need a Plan B** that doesn't include "AI", since the AI field is characterized by repeated "winter" periods where people get tired of big promises and minimal results and stop spending money on it. And I'm expecting the current round of over-the-top hype to run out of steam.
*: E.g.: Gary Marcus at: https://substack.com/@garymarcus
**: Even better is a Plan A that only includes AI/ML as a footnote. That is, make a real area of computer science as your main thing with the claim that you get AI and can do AI work and teaching if required.
Oops. You've lost some of your comments again.
ReplyDeleteI found them in the spam folder and restored them. Not sure why that was happening.
DeleteUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham is hiring for a total of six positions.
ReplyDelete- 4 Tenure Track Assistant Professors: https://uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/19843
- 1 Teaching Track Assistant Professor (NTT): https://uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/19742
- 1 Endowed chair at tenured Associate/Full professor level: https://uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/19842
UC Davis is hiring in Theoretical Computer Science, due date Dec. 8: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06126
ReplyDeleteThe EECS Department at York University in Toronto, Canada is inviting applications for several faculty positions, including one designated specifically for theoretical computer science. The application deadline is February 20. Please see https://www.yorku.ca/vpepc/faculty-affairs/faculty-positions/ (under Lassonde School of Engineering) for more information.
ReplyDelete