Summer Intern: Congressional Policymaking

Overview

The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern who will assist Senior Fellow Philip Wallach and possibly other scholars in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department by researching and developing datasets via large language models (LLMs). Dr. Wallach studies Congress’s place in America’s constitutional system and is working on several projects studying the evolution of congressional procedure and the expansion of executive-initiated policymaking.

Dr. Wallach is seeking an intern with demonstrated experience using LLMs at scale who can help him use AI to analyze large datasets on the policymaking process. The intern’s previous research experience need not be related to Congress or even public policy, as long as he or she has a serious interest in these topics. In their cover letters, applicants should detail their previous work experience, including specific LLMs they have used and whether they used any service’s application programming interface.

This internship is an ideal opportunity for someone hoping to strengthen their own research. Past interns have undertaken self-driven projects supporting Dr. Wallach’s research and coauthored papers with him.

The ideal candidate

• Has demonstrated experience using LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude Opus, Google’s Gemini, Mixtral, Llama, or classification models such as bidirectional encoder representations from transformers) for research,
• Can experiment with new techniques and refine them based on feedback, and
• Has a genuine interest in the American policymaking process and a willingness to learn about legal processes.

The start dates for the summer program are May 27 and June 3. While the AEI Internship Program and all related programming will take place in-person in Washington, DC this summer, virtual interns may be accepted on a case by case basis. Please include your preferred start date and note your in-person/virtual preference in your cover letter.  Please note that a cover letter and writing sample are both required, in order for your application to be considered complete.

About AEI Internships

AEI internships offer a unique opportunity for undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates to gain experience in research, writing, business, and communications at one of the nation’s leading think tanks. Competitive candidates will generally have a 3.4 GPA or higher from a top-ranking college or university. The AEI internship program runs 12 weeks. Please see the internship program home page for updates about the program.