Student Research Assistant

Apply here. Applicants should submit a CV and cover letter describing their experience and interest in this role. 

Job Overview

The Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) at Georgetown University seeks a full-time Student Research Assistant to work across our portfolio of technical projects for 10-12 weeks during the summer of 2026. This position is designated as hybrid, with the successful candidate expected to work alongside the team in Washington, D.C.

KGI was established to connect independent research with technology policy and design, with a focus on the online information environment. Much of KGI’s work involves analysis, explanation, or research translation concerning core technologies involved in online information delivery or consumption, including web technologies, social media, search, generative AI, and more. The Student Research Assistant role is an opportunity for a graduate student with technical skills or experience to gain exposure to AI policy.

The Research Assistant will join the team behind a new project examining AI and the future of content markets, an interdisciplinary effort examining how generative AI is transforming the relationship between websites and web crawlers. This initiative addresses growing tensions around AI companies’ use of web content for AI training, the displacement of traffic to original content sources, and the broader implications for news, knowledge production, and the information ecosystem. 

The tech and content industries are in a period of significant experimentation with technical interventions directed at crawling, indexing, attribution of content, payments, and other solutions. KGI’s new project will assess how each approach might support an information future for the common good and the tradeoffs each entails, ultimately providing recommendations to the policy and technical communities for short- and long-term technical approaches. The Research Assistant may also contribute to other KGI projects as needs arise.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Student Research Assistant will focus on the technical dimensions of this work, contributing to analysis of technical interventions, engaging with industry stakeholders and standards bodies, and contributing to the production of research outputs that inform policy and technical debates. The role will provide an opportunity to co-author these outputs as KGI publications and in other policy publication venues. 

The Student Research Assistant role is open to graduate students pursuing degrees in technical fields, or graduate students in non-technical fields with prior work experience in technical roles in industry, academia, or government.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Conducting research and analysis on technical approaches to web/AI crawling, indexing, content attribution, bot authentication, web payments, and related mechanisms.
• Monitoring and and engaging in industry forums and multistakeholder discussions about AI and web crawling on behalf of KGI, including organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
• Synthesizing technical research, documentation, standards proposals, and industry developments into accessible research summaries.
• Co-authoring and contributing to the production of reports, briefs, and commentary.
• Assisting  with the organization of stakeholder meetings on technical interventions.

Position Details

This is a hybrid position. The successful candidate will work 40 hours a week for 10-12 weeks during the summer of 2026. The compensation range for this position is: $680-920/week.

The KGI team splits our time between our Washington, D.C. Capitol Campus and working from home. We rely heavily on Slack, Signal, Gmail, and Zoom to stay connected synchronously and asynchronously.

The Student Research Assistant will report to the Executive Director and work collaboratively across the small but growing organization, including KGI staff, fellows, postdocs, and graduate student affiliates. This role will have no direct reports. 

Requirements & Qualifications

Required:

• Currently enrolled in or recently completed a graduate program in computer science, information science, or a related technical field, or for graduate students currently enrolled in a non-technical degree program, 2 years of prior work experience in a technical role in industry, academia, or government
• Bachelor’s degree in any field
• Strong understanding of web technologies, protocols, and infrastructure
• Familiarity with AI and machine learning concepts, particularly as they relate to large language models and model training data
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for policy audiences
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities
• Strong analytical and research skills

Preferred:

• Interest or prior work in journalism, media, library science, digital archives, or open science infrastructure
• Exposure to internet policy, competition policy, or technology regulation
• Experience with web scraping or large-scale data collection
• Familiarity with copyright and data licensing as they relate to AI training

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a CV and cover letter describing your experience and interest in this role. Please apply here.