AI Safety Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

AI safety fellowship to upskill local talent, build a pipeline of people who understand AI safety deeply enough to contribute to research, advise on policy, and coordinate when AI governance decisions are being made.

Project Details

Following the interest of participants from our inaugural AI Safety Nepal kick-off event (LinkedIn), we want to provide a stepping stone for students and professionals to engage in the field of AI safety. This will be Nepal's first dedicated AI safety fellowship, in-person and discussion-based, and will use the AI Safety Atlas curriculum as its core material over five weeks.
In the final weeks, participants develop either a technical AI safety research or governance/policy project where we plan to take the 3-5 most promising projects forward with mentorship and compute support after the program.

Theory of Impact

Through the fellowship, we want to encourage and upskill talented folks in AI safety. Nepal has talented students and professionals, but AI safety as a field is not known to many. We want to upskill local talent so they understand AI safety better, understand pathways for further contribution, and contribute to global AI safety efforts through independent research, participating in fellowships like SPAR, MARS, MATS, etc., and contributing to policy and local governance efforts.

Over 70 people applied for our kick-off event within a week, among whom we selected 50, and more than 85% expressed interest in a longer-commitment fellowship. This gave us confidence that there is interest in this kind of program. With this fellowship, our aim is:

Discussion-based learning with participants from different disciplines.
Become an on-ramp for students and professionals to transition into AI safety.
Identify high-potential participants and continue mentoring 3–5 promising research or governance projects beyond the fellowship.