AI Grant
Fellowship
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AI Grant
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Fellowship
AI Grant is a grant program for open source AI projects, founded in 2017 by Nat Friedman (former CEO of GitHub) and Daniel Gross (former head of AI at Apple, Y Combinator partner). The program provides $5,000 to $50,000 in grants for open source projects with no strings attached, available as compute credits or cash.
The program occupies a unique position in the AI ecosystem: it is not a traditional venture capital fellowship or accelerator, but rather a no-strings-attached funding mechanism for builders working on open source AI tools and research. Recipients retain full ownership of their work and are not required to give up equity or commit to any particular structure. The grant program operates separately from AI Grant's accelerator program (aigrant.com), which is a more traditional startup program.
AI Grant has funded a wide range of projects since its 2017 launch, spanning reinforcement learning agents, browser-based deep learning libraries, medical imaging applications (stroke scan interpretation, child abuse detection), physics simulations, drug design acceleration tools, generative art, and audio dataset projects. More recently, the program has supported developers working on llama-cpp-python, the GGUF file format, and fast machine learning inference.
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AI Grant aims to support the development of open source AI projects by providing funding without the typical strings attached to venture capital. The program focuses on empowering builders in the AI ecosystem to innovate freely and retain ownership of their work.
Open to anyone building open source AI projects. No formal credentials, institutional affiliation, or prior track record required. Projects should be open source and related to artificial intelligence.
Grants of $5,000 to $50,000 per project, available as cash or compute credits. No equity taken. No strings attached. Recipients gain visibility within the AI Grant community and access to the founders' networks.
The program is free to apply for and does not require any payment from participants.
Varies (grant-based, no fixed program duration). Cohort cadence is rolling/periodic batches.
The program requires a part-time commitment from participants, allowing them to work on their projects while receiving funding.
The program operates remotely, allowing participants from around the globe to apply and receive funding.
No dedicated press coverage of the grant program was identified during research, though the program is frequently referenced in lists of AI funding opportunities and open source grant programs.
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