Pathfinder is a semester-long fellowship for students who lead — or are about to start — an AI safety or AI policy group at their university. It is run by Kairos, a US nonprofit that builds talent pipelines for work on risks from advanced AI, and the funding behind it comes from Coefficient Giving.
Fellows keep running their own group. Kairos adds a mentor, money for group activities, and a network of organizers doing the same work on other campuses. Groups working on technical safety, AI governance and policy, AI system security, or AI welfare all qualify.
Students anywhere in the world can apply, at undergraduate and graduate level alike. The Spring 2026 round selected 69 fellows at 50 universities across 12 countries.
Benefits & funding
- A mentor matched to the organizer’s goals, with a weekly call; many mentors have worked at organizations such as METR, RAND and Anthropic
- Starter funding of USD 500 released at kickoff, plus a group budget requested during the semester
- Group funding covers running costs such as compute, speaker events and food
- Graduate students may apply for a stipend covering their organizing time; undergraduates are not eligible for that stipend
- Kairos arranges fiscal sponsorship: a partner nonprofit issues a spending-capped credit card, and groups that already hold a legal entity receive grants instead
- Workshops, virtual coffee chats, a Slack community, and access to the AI Safety Groups Resource Center
Eligibility
- Students who help lead, or plan to found, a university AI safety or AI policy group
- Undergraduate and graduate students both qualify
- Enough knowledge of AI safety to explain core AI risk concerns to a beginner
- A significant active role in running the group; holding the head organizer position is not required
- Open to students at universities anywhere in the world, with no nationality requirement
- Several organizers from one group may apply, though Kairos usually selects at most two fellows per group
- Past participants, including alumni of the earlier FSP program, may apply again
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
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Education required
Bachelor Enrolled · Master Enrolled · PhD Enrolled
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Application process
- 1Apply individually on the Pathfinder site while a round is open — each organizer submits their own application, and there is no group application.
- 2Wait for the selection decision, announced about a week after the round closes.
- 3Attend the kickoff event for fellows, held the day after the separate mentor kickoff, and receive the group’s starter funding.
- 4Meet the assigned mentor weekly; after the first three calls a fellow may ask for a different mentor.
- 5Submit the group budget request by the stated date, with funding decisions following about two weeks later.
- 6Between rounds, fill in the expression-of-interest form to be notified when applications reopen.
Program timeline
Fall 2026 applications open
Jul 6, 2026
Fall 2026 applications close
Jul 28, 2026
Decisions announced
Aug 3, 2026
Mentor kickoff event; USD 500 starter funding released
Aug 6, 2026
Fellow kickoff event
Aug 7, 2026
Weekly mentor meetings start
Aug 8, 2026
Coffee chats start
Aug 10, 2026
Workshops start
Aug 12, 2026
Group budget requests due
Aug 21, 2026
Group funding decisions
Sep 2, 2026
Next round
Spring 2027; dates not yet published, interest form open