GitHub Opens New Group for AI-Focused Open Source Projects

14 February, 2024

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GitHub has opened a new group for the GitHub Accelerator, a program that provides funding and support for select open source projects. The theme of this group will be Open Source Artificial Intelligence.

“AI is rapidly changing the way we work and live, and open source collaboration is at the core of AI innovation,” Stormy Peters, vice president of communities at GitHub, wrote in a blog post. “We’re seeing developers across the globe use GitHub to innovate and share openly at every level of the AI stack, from training frameworks, to models, to responsible AI and evaluation tooling.

“But building a successful AI business in the open comes with its challenges. On top of the time and funding obstacles we’re already familiar with in open source, the heightened expenses and ethical, security, and legal considerations are daunting. We see these challenges as a risk to global innovation and are hoping to help”, he added.

The GitHub Accelerator will run for ten weeks, and the program includes group sessions, project work, and mentorship. Program participants will have 40 hours per week, of which about 5-10 hours are live training, workshops, and homework assignments.

In this round, 10 participants will be selected to receive $40,000 in project funding, free access to GitHub products, free Azure AI credits, and access to the general Slack channel.

Participants will gain access to GitHub staff for security reviews, engage in Q&A sessions with GitHub sponsors, community members, and leaders, and receive an introduction to Microsoft’s venture fund M12, including at least one hour of dedicated time with them.

At the culmination of the program, a virtual Demo Day will provide an opportunity for participants to showcase their progress to the community, including GitHub leadership and venture capitalists.

To be considered for acceptance into the cohort, GitHub suggests presenting a project with a clear open source license, well-defined governance strategy, commitment from core leaders for project growth, a plan for fund utilization, and a strong emphasis on AI, machine learning, and AI infrastructure. GitHub prioritizes projects with an active and expanding user base.