Jul 25, 2025
-
Jul 27, 2025
Online
AI Safety x Physics Grand Challenge



Ready to bridge physics and AI safety? Apply your rigorous quantitative training to one of the most impactful technical challenges of our time.
13
Days To Go
13
Days To Go
13
Days To Go
13
Days To Go
Ready to bridge physics and AI safety? Apply your rigorous quantitative training to one of the most impactful technical challenges of our time.
This event is ongoing.
This event has concluded.
Sign Ups
Entries
Overview
Resources
Guidelines
Entries
Overview

Bringing Physics to AI Safety's Most Pressing Challenges
The AI Safety x Physics Grand Challenge is a research hackathon designed to engage physicists in tackling critical AI safety problems. This is an excellent entry point for physicists who want to contribute to AI safety—you'll work alongside peers who share your technical background and passion for rigorous problem-solving.
Why Physics for AI Safety?
Physicists have so much to offer to AI safety:
* The ability to integrate empirical, theoretical, and computational methodologies to gain comprehensive understanding of a real-world system
* A deep understanding of scale and emergence in complex or strongly-coupled systems -- knowing how much to 'zoom in' to get an accurate, faithful description
* Comfort with uncertainty, statistical thinking, and order-of-magnitude sanity checking
Two Research Tracks
Project Track
How well does the project connect physics concepts with key alignment or interpretability challenges? Ideal for participants with ML/AI experience who want to apply physics methods to safety problems
Papers Track
Propose novel research agendas that tackle an AI safety challenge, or explore a potential bridge between an AI safety problem and a physics concept
What to Expect
Expert mentorship from researchers at the intersection of physics and AI
Structured problem areas with starter materials and concrete research directions
Global community of highly talented participants enthusiastic about tackling high-impact challenges
Follow-up support for exceptional projects through Apart Research programs
Optional pre-event orientation for those new to AI safety
Apply
Join us in applying your academic training to one of the most important technical challenges of our time. Connect with a growing community of researchers working to ensure AI systems are developed safely and beneficially.
Sign Ups
Entries
Overview
Resources
Guidelines
Entries
Overview

Bringing Physics to AI Safety's Most Pressing Challenges
The AI Safety x Physics Grand Challenge is a research hackathon designed to engage physicists in tackling critical AI safety problems. This is an excellent entry point for physicists who want to contribute to AI safety—you'll work alongside peers who share your technical background and passion for rigorous problem-solving.
Why Physics for AI Safety?
Physicists have so much to offer to AI safety:
* The ability to integrate empirical, theoretical, and computational methodologies to gain comprehensive understanding of a real-world system
* A deep understanding of scale and emergence in complex or strongly-coupled systems -- knowing how much to 'zoom in' to get an accurate, faithful description
* Comfort with uncertainty, statistical thinking, and order-of-magnitude sanity checking
Two Research Tracks
Project Track
How well does the project connect physics concepts with key alignment or interpretability challenges? Ideal for participants with ML/AI experience who want to apply physics methods to safety problems
Papers Track
Propose novel research agendas that tackle an AI safety challenge, or explore a potential bridge between an AI safety problem and a physics concept
What to Expect
Expert mentorship from researchers at the intersection of physics and AI
Structured problem areas with starter materials and concrete research directions
Global community of highly talented participants enthusiastic about tackling high-impact challenges
Follow-up support for exceptional projects through Apart Research programs
Optional pre-event orientation for those new to AI safety
Apply
Join us in applying your academic training to one of the most important technical challenges of our time. Connect with a growing community of researchers working to ensure AI systems are developed safely and beneficially.
Sign Ups
Entries
Overview
Resources
Guidelines
Entries
Overview

Bringing Physics to AI Safety's Most Pressing Challenges
The AI Safety x Physics Grand Challenge is a research hackathon designed to engage physicists in tackling critical AI safety problems. This is an excellent entry point for physicists who want to contribute to AI safety—you'll work alongside peers who share your technical background and passion for rigorous problem-solving.
Why Physics for AI Safety?
Physicists have so much to offer to AI safety:
* The ability to integrate empirical, theoretical, and computational methodologies to gain comprehensive understanding of a real-world system
* A deep understanding of scale and emergence in complex or strongly-coupled systems -- knowing how much to 'zoom in' to get an accurate, faithful description
* Comfort with uncertainty, statistical thinking, and order-of-magnitude sanity checking
Two Research Tracks
Project Track
How well does the project connect physics concepts with key alignment or interpretability challenges? Ideal for participants with ML/AI experience who want to apply physics methods to safety problems
Papers Track
Propose novel research agendas that tackle an AI safety challenge, or explore a potential bridge between an AI safety problem and a physics concept
What to Expect
Expert mentorship from researchers at the intersection of physics and AI
Structured problem areas with starter materials and concrete research directions
Global community of highly talented participants enthusiastic about tackling high-impact challenges
Follow-up support for exceptional projects through Apart Research programs
Optional pre-event orientation for those new to AI safety
Apply
Join us in applying your academic training to one of the most important technical challenges of our time. Connect with a growing community of researchers working to ensure AI systems are developed safely and beneficially.
Sign Ups
Entries
Overview
Resources
Guidelines
Entries
Overview

Bringing Physics to AI Safety's Most Pressing Challenges
The AI Safety x Physics Grand Challenge is a research hackathon designed to engage physicists in tackling critical AI safety problems. This is an excellent entry point for physicists who want to contribute to AI safety—you'll work alongside peers who share your technical background and passion for rigorous problem-solving.
Why Physics for AI Safety?
Physicists have so much to offer to AI safety:
* The ability to integrate empirical, theoretical, and computational methodologies to gain comprehensive understanding of a real-world system
* A deep understanding of scale and emergence in complex or strongly-coupled systems -- knowing how much to 'zoom in' to get an accurate, faithful description
* Comfort with uncertainty, statistical thinking, and order-of-magnitude sanity checking
Two Research Tracks
Project Track
How well does the project connect physics concepts with key alignment or interpretability challenges? Ideal for participants with ML/AI experience who want to apply physics methods to safety problems
Papers Track
Propose novel research agendas that tackle an AI safety challenge, or explore a potential bridge between an AI safety problem and a physics concept
What to Expect
Expert mentorship from researchers at the intersection of physics and AI
Structured problem areas with starter materials and concrete research directions
Global community of highly talented participants enthusiastic about tackling high-impact challenges
Follow-up support for exceptional projects through Apart Research programs
Optional pre-event orientation for those new to AI safety
Apply
Join us in applying your academic training to one of the most important technical challenges of our time. Connect with a growing community of researchers working to ensure AI systems are developed safely and beneficially.
Speakers & Collaborators
Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier
Organizer & Judge
Jason is co-director of Apart Research and leads Apart Lab, the research program supporting top hackathon participants and projects.
Ari Brill
Area Chair
Astrophysicist turned AI safety researcher. PhD in Physics from Columbia, former NASA postdoc studying black holes. Now develops mathematical models for AI system representations and alignment.
Lauren Greenspan
Area Chair
An interdisciplinary researcher bridging theoretical physics, social studies of science, and AI safety, Lauren works on the PIBBSS horizon scanning team. She is currently focused on research and field building to close the theory-practice gap in AI safety.
Paul Riechers
Speaker
Theoretical physicist and Co-founder of BITS and Simplex AI Safety. Research Lead at Astera Institute, focusing on the intersection of physics theory and AI alignment research.
Dmitry Vaintrob
Speaker
Dmitry Vaintrob is an AI safety and interpretability researcher. He has a mathematics background, having studied interactions between algebraic geometry, representation theory and physics. He is now working at the Horizon Scanning Team at PIBBSS
Speakers & Collaborators

Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier
Organizer & Judge
Jason is co-director of Apart Research and leads Apart Lab, the research program supporting top hackathon participants and projects.

Ari Brill
Area Chair
Astrophysicist turned AI safety researcher. PhD in Physics from Columbia, former NASA postdoc studying black holes. Now develops mathematical models for AI system representations and alignment.

Lauren Greenspan
Area Chair
An interdisciplinary researcher bridging theoretical physics, social studies of science, and AI safety, Lauren works on the PIBBSS horizon scanning team. She is currently focused on research and field building to close the theory-practice gap in AI safety.

Paul Riechers
Speaker
Theoretical physicist and Co-founder of BITS and Simplex AI Safety. Research Lead at Astera Institute, focusing on the intersection of physics theory and AI alignment research.
Registered Jam Sites
Register A Location
Beside the remote and virtual participation, our amazing organizers also host local hackathon locations where you can meet up in-person and connect with others in your area.
The in-person events for the Apart Sprints are run by passionate individuals just like you! We organize the schedule, speakers, and starter templates, and you can focus on engaging your local research, student, and engineering community.
We haven't announced jam sites yet
Check back later
Registered Jam Sites
Register A Location
Beside the remote and virtual participation, our amazing organizers also host local hackathon locations where you can meet up in-person and connect with others in your area.
The in-person events for the Apart Sprints are run by passionate individuals just like you! We organize the schedule, speakers, and starter templates, and you can focus on engaging your local research, student, and engineering community.
We haven't announced jam sites yet
Check back later
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