2026 AI/ML Research Fellow
Eligibility
Previous fellows and research staff have come from diverse backgrounds, including early career researchers previously at MSR, FAIR, Mila, MPI, etc., and self-taught senior engineers transitioning into research. We do not discriminate on the basis of pedigree or age. If you have done interesting work, that is enough.
Location
This will be a remote fellowship. We do not sponsor visas.
Compensation
A competitive location-adjusted stipend, conference and travel support for conferences with accepted papers. After the fellowship, past fellows have stayed on in full-time roles at IMI or co-founded AI unicorns. This is a selective process, so we claim little credit for their success. However, we will support your next steps.
Selection Criteria
Novelty and importance, clarity of approach, feasibility given time/compute, alignment with topics. Panel review and one interview.
Using AI
Coding agents are indisputably useful tools. We provide access to the top 3 models, and were early adopters of evals-first development flows. Familiarity with coding using agents is part of all interviews. However, reliability and correctness are critical for us. You will need to read and understand every line of code with your name on it, and it will be reviewed by both people and machines.
Deliverables
- You will be expected to spend about 80% of your time on your own research, and up to 20% of your time either assisting other fellows or participating in wider research programs at IMI.
- We do not have hard targets, and focus on quality. Fellows generally get 1-2 papers with code done in a year, targeting NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, etc. At the end of your fellowship, if the threshold for refereed publication is unmet we will expect a final report, which may be published as a blog post.
Application
Send a brief bio/CV link via this page. Include 1) the topic you are interested in working on, 2) a few lines on any relevant prior work you've done, 3) your github/scholar/x links, 4) your desired start date, duration, and other obligations (if any) during that period, and 5) a brief analysis of one of the projects outlined on the page linked above. Each project we have listed intentionally includes some gaps or glosses. List the ones you see, and how you'd solve them. Alternatively, if you dislike the projects outlined under a particular topic, briefly write up your own idea and why it is more promising, along with your estimate of time and compute required.
Deadlines
Admitting fellows in two cohorts. Deadlines for consideration: April 1 and September 1 2026. 3 week decision period. Rolling thereafter.
Full Details
Full details are available at: https://www.imachines.com/imi-ai-ml-fellowships-2025-2026-high-risk-research