Large Language Model Consultancy
Remote
Contracted
Experienced
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Issue Date: January 10, 2025
Proposal Due Date: January 24, 2025
Anticipated Award Date: February 15, 2025
To Whom It May Concern:
IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) is seeking qualified respondents to support an international consultant with demonstrated expertise in Large Language Model (LLM) development.
The anticipated award will be a consultancy contract. IREX reserves the right to withdrawal this request for proposal at any time up to the award of the contract.
Programme description
Online hate speech is a pervasive issue on social media platforms in Sri Lanka, resulting in a discordant digital environment. The existing strategies to combat this problem are insufficient, leading to the proliferation of harmful content. Content moderators, tasked with addressing this issue, are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of hateful content, which often leads to desensitization and biased decision-making. Additionally, detecting hate speech has become increasingly complex due to variations in spellings, regional slang, and different linguistic patterns. The complexity also resulted in the unavailability of a standard lexicon report on hate speech in the Sri Lankan context.
DreamSpace (Private) Limited (DSA) has developed a hate speech detection and warning system which can detect hate speech in English and Tamil and issue warnings. The tool consisted of a complex ruleset and was primarily static to compensate for the not-so-accurate speech-to-text support for the Tamil language. As the next iteration, DreamSpace (Private) Limited plans to build a more nuanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) hate speech detector which will utilize all the recent advancements in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and generative AI. Upgrading the existing AI monitoring tool will be useful for detecting hate speech on various online platforms, including social media, news websites, and YouTube.
IREX and DSA will collaborate with the international consultant known for their expertise in developing LLM software systems. Consultant will be expected to deliver specialized training on the topics outlined below. The consultant will be expected to provide their expertise for the below:
The Promoting Positive Information (PRO-INFO) activity, funded by USAID/Sri Lanka through the Civil Society and Media Strengthening Together and Advancing in New Directions (CSM-STAND) mechanism, is implemented by IREX to support the transition of information and media environment in Sri Lanka to one that is more democratic and responsive to its citizens.
Proposal Requirements
Individuals interested in providing this service must submit a proposal, and cover letter including a breakdown of costs, which demonstrates the individual’s capacity to provide:
Duties and responsibilities: The selected consultant will work closely with the IREX PRO-INFO team and DSA to develop the AI tool. Specifically, this includes:
Qualifications: IREX encourages individuals with a strong track record in NLP to apply for this opportunity. Specifically, the consultant should have:
IREX may at its discretion ask for additional information or an interview. Issuing this call does not commit IREX to select any candidate. IREX reserves the right, based on availability of funding and consultant performance, to increase the duration and/or enter into subsequent contractual agreements with the selected experts without re-publicizing the opportunity.
Proposal Submission
If you are interested in furnishing this service, please e-mail a proposal [email protected] Attn: Kasun Jayatilake with “LLM Consultancy” in the subject line. If you decide to submit a proposal, it must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Indian Standard Time on the closing date indicated above. Late submissions will only be considered if in the best interests of the project, and then at IREX’s sole discretion. All proposals submitted must be valid for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days from the closing date indicated above.
Proposal Evaluation
The criteria are listed in descending order starting with the most important factors to be evaluated.
Evaluation and ranking of proposals will be done by IREX Sri Lanka. IREX may at its discretion ask for additional information or perform site visits.
Renewal
IREX reserves the right, based on availability of funding and vendor performance, to enter into subsequent contractual agreements with the winning vendor for a period of up to three years without issuing a new RFP.
Contact Information
Name: Kasun Jayatilake
Title: Senior Program Officer
IREX PROINFO
123, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka
Issue Date: January 10, 2025
Proposal Due Date: January 24, 2025
Anticipated Award Date: February 15, 2025
To Whom It May Concern:
IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) is seeking qualified respondents to support an international consultant with demonstrated expertise in Large Language Model (LLM) development.
The anticipated award will be a consultancy contract. IREX reserves the right to withdrawal this request for proposal at any time up to the award of the contract.
Programme description
Online hate speech is a pervasive issue on social media platforms in Sri Lanka, resulting in a discordant digital environment. The existing strategies to combat this problem are insufficient, leading to the proliferation of harmful content. Content moderators, tasked with addressing this issue, are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of hateful content, which often leads to desensitization and biased decision-making. Additionally, detecting hate speech has become increasingly complex due to variations in spellings, regional slang, and different linguistic patterns. The complexity also resulted in the unavailability of a standard lexicon report on hate speech in the Sri Lankan context.
DreamSpace (Private) Limited (DSA) has developed a hate speech detection and warning system which can detect hate speech in English and Tamil and issue warnings. The tool consisted of a complex ruleset and was primarily static to compensate for the not-so-accurate speech-to-text support for the Tamil language. As the next iteration, DreamSpace (Private) Limited plans to build a more nuanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) hate speech detector which will utilize all the recent advancements in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and generative AI. Upgrading the existing AI monitoring tool will be useful for detecting hate speech on various online platforms, including social media, news websites, and YouTube.
IREX and DSA will collaborate with the international consultant known for their expertise in developing LLM software systems. Consultant will be expected to deliver specialized training on the topics outlined below. The consultant will be expected to provide their expertise for the below:
| Topic | Specific Areas |
| Data Collection Process |
|
| Processing the dataset |
|
| LLM Selection |
|
| Model Development |
|
The Promoting Positive Information (PRO-INFO) activity, funded by USAID/Sri Lanka through the Civil Society and Media Strengthening Together and Advancing in New Directions (CSM-STAND) mechanism, is implemented by IREX to support the transition of information and media environment in Sri Lanka to one that is more democratic and responsive to its citizens.
Proposal Requirements
Individuals interested in providing this service must submit a proposal, and cover letter including a breakdown of costs, which demonstrates the individual’s capacity to provide:
- Fine-tuning and alignment of LLMs for content monitoring and moderation
- Building and curating multilingual training datasets, particularly for low-resource languages
- Deploying and optimizing LLM-based applications in production environments
- Developing evaluation frameworks for hate speech detection systems
- Implementing real-time analytics dashboards that visualize LLM outputs and content moderation metrics
Duties and responsibilities: The selected consultant will work closely with the IREX PRO-INFO team and DSA to develop the AI tool. Specifically, this includes:
- Consulting the development team on various NLP techniques
- Guidance during the LLM selection and model development and deployment
- Consultation regarding the governance of the dataset and possible improvements
- Other duties may be added as per the needs of IREX or partners.
Qualifications: IREX encourages individuals with a strong track record in NLP to apply for this opportunity. Specifically, the consultant should have:
- B.Sc. or higher qualification in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, NLP or a related field
- Hands-on working experience with both commercial and open weight Large Language Models
- Experience in applying NLP techniques on low resource (non-English) languages
- Experience in designing, developing and deploying real time language monitoring and reporting systems with dashboards
- Strong communication, interpersonal skills, work ethic and ability to work in a multicultural environment.
IREX may at its discretion ask for additional information or an interview. Issuing this call does not commit IREX to select any candidate. IREX reserves the right, based on availability of funding and consultant performance, to increase the duration and/or enter into subsequent contractual agreements with the selected experts without re-publicizing the opportunity.
Proposal Submission
If you are interested in furnishing this service, please e-mail a proposal [email protected] Attn: Kasun Jayatilake with “LLM Consultancy” in the subject line. If you decide to submit a proposal, it must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Indian Standard Time on the closing date indicated above. Late submissions will only be considered if in the best interests of the project, and then at IREX’s sole discretion. All proposals submitted must be valid for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days from the closing date indicated above.
Proposal Evaluation
The criteria are listed in descending order starting with the most important factors to be evaluated.
- Overall, Price Competitiveness (30%)
- Flexibility 15%)
- Sufficiency of methodology outlined (20%)
- Creativity in approach (10%)
- Qualifications (10%)
- Individual’s capacity (10%)
- Past references (5%)
Evaluation and ranking of proposals will be done by IREX Sri Lanka. IREX may at its discretion ask for additional information or perform site visits.
Renewal
IREX reserves the right, based on availability of funding and vendor performance, to enter into subsequent contractual agreements with the winning vendor for a period of up to three years without issuing a new RFP.
Contact Information
Name: Kasun Jayatilake
Title: Senior Program Officer
IREX PROINFO
123, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka
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