Register for the Global South AI Safety Hackathon hosted by Apart Research and Schmidt Sciences. 19 -21 June 2026

Artificial Intelligence & Governance: Global South AI Safety Hackathon

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🤖🌍 GLOBAL SOUTH AI SAFETY HACKATHON AT A GLANCE & REGIONAL TRACKS

Organizing Body: Apart Research
Strategic Partner: Supported by Schmidt Sciences
Event Title: Global South AI Safety Hackathon
Event Modality: Online / In-person via localized regional hubs
Event Dates: Friday, 19 June 2026 to Sunday, 21 June 2026 (Weekend Sprint)
Target Regions: Latin America, Africa, and Asia
Primary Objective: Developing technical tools, evaluation benchmarks, and policy research tailored to regional AI safety challenges.

Apart Research, in strategic partnership with Schmidt Sciences, has officially opened registration for the Global South AI Safety Hackathon. Scheduled to run from June 19 to June 21, 2026, this intensive weekend-long research sprint is designed to challenge the historical concentration of artificial intelligence alignment and safety research within a small handful of Western tech hubs.

the Global South AI Safety Hackathon by bringing together engineers, machine learning developers, policy professionals, and students from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the hackathon establishes a dedicated pipeline for underrepresented regions to contribute directly to the global AI governance architecture. Crucially, the event is structured to level the playing field: participants form teams and compete within their respective regions rather than against a single global leaderboard, ensuring that hyper-localized, region-specific AI threats are evaluated by regional expert judges.

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Core Challenge Tracks & Research Themes

Participants in the Global South AI Safety Hackathon can choose between technical engineering tracks or qualitative policy sub-tracks. The event focuses on several critical themes often overlooked in mainstream AI safety discussions:

1. Localization & Non-English Safety Benchmarks

Language Model Fairness: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Designing robust evaluation and alignment frameworks for non-English and regional languages (including Spanish, Portuguese, and indigenous African or Asian dialects) where safety guarding is typically weak.
Contextual Evaluation: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Building datasets and testing environments to identify hallucination or bias in LLMs deployed for critical regional sectors, such as agricultural advisory or localized healthcare.

2. Regional Vulnerabilities & Deepfake Mitigation

Electoral Protection: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Creating rapid-detection or monitoring tools to combat deepfake-driven disinformation and synthetic media aimed at disrupting regional elections and civil stability.
Risk Detection Systems: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Engineering community-level risk detection metrics to track and minimize active algorithmic harms on local populations.

3. Infrastructure Dependence & Governance Harmonization

Data Colonialism: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Analyzing policy frameworks to address infrastructure asymmetries, compute limitations, and semiconductor access restrictions in the Global South.
Policy Harmonization: The Global South AI Safety Hackathon will focus on Reviewing, mapping, and aligning national AI strategies to foster smooth, cross-border AI governance frameworks.

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Organizational Network & Local Physical Hubs

While the hackathon is fully accessible online via the official Apart Research platform and interactive Discord coordination servers, multiple cities across the Global South are establishing physical, localized “jamsites” to foster in-person collaboration:

Latin America Hubs: Buenos Aires (Argentina), São Paulo (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), Mérida & Guadalajara (Mexico), and Santa Cruz (Bolivia).
Africa Hubs: Cape Town (South Africa), Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Asia Hubs: Bengaluru (India, via the SAFL network), Shanghai (China), alongside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).

The Hackathon Blueprint & Long-Term Impact Pipeline

The event is built for actionable output, providing a clear path from a weekend prototype to a published paper or career transition:

[Regional Team Formation] ──> [2-Day Research & Tool Prototyping] ──> [Report Submission & Judging] ──> [Apart Lab Fellowship Placement]

Problem Scoping: Teams select a track and utilize code templates, starter datasets, and foundational research materials provided by Apart Research.
Mentorship & Q&A: Throughout the weekend, top-tier global AI safety researchers and machine learning engineers provide live, virtual mentorship sessions on the event’s Discord workspace.
Submission & Review: Teams submit a working technical tool, evaluation script, or structured policy whitepaper along with a final research summary for evaluation by regional judges.
The Apart Fellowship Pipeline: Outstanding regional teams do not just win immediate recognition; they are fast-tracked into the Apart Lab Fellowship. This remote, mentor-led incubator provides long-term financial backing, rigorous scientific oversight, and publication support to turn hackathon projects into peer-reviewed research papers or deep-tech startups.

Participant Profiles & Registration Steps

Apart Research welcomes a diverse range of participants; no prior specialization in technical AI safety is required to join, as comprehensive learning guides and infrastructure templates are provided at kickoff.

Ideal Participant Profiles:

Machine Learning Engineers, Data Scientists, and Software Developers.
Technical Policy Analysts, Legal Scholars, and International Relations Professionals.
Postgraduate or advanced Undergraduate Students in Computer Science, Public Policy, or Economics.
Social Entrepreneurs looking to build defensive solutions against systemic digital harms.

Direct Application & Registration Protocol:

Navigate to the centralized official Apart Research sprint platform.
Access the designated secure hackathon terminal using the direct digital link below
Select the “Register” or “Sign Up” option to log your candidate metrics.
Complete the entry profile, specify whether you are participating online or via a local city hub, and state your preferred regional competitive track (Latin America, Africa, or Asia).
Join the dedicated event coordination workspace to begin brainstorming open research problems and forming teams before the opening ceremony on Friday, 19 June 2026.

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