CNY AI Safety — Launch Retreat

A two-night retreat for sixteen students, researchers, and builders from across Central and Western New York — Cornell, Rochester, RIT, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Binghamton.

⚠️ Registering here does not reserve a spot. The retreat is by application, and there are only 16 places. Apply here — applications close Friday, October 16.

📅 Friday, November 13 → Sunday, November 15, 2026

📍 Finger Lakes, New York

👥 16 spots, by application

💵 Free — lodging, meals, and travel within New York State are fully covered

The weekend runs two threads, and you sit in both:

1) Governance — the institutional, political, and social side of advanced-AI risk: misuse, biosecurity, institutional risk, responsible deployment, policy levers.

2) Technical safety — concrete, safety-relevant work: LLM evals, interpretability, agent safety, benchmark design. ▎ ▎ Plus an evening with an invited guest, open project time, and a lot of arguing in the living room.

No prior AI safety background required — genuinely. A good part of the room will be encountering this properly for the first time. We're selecting for people who'll still be engaged in six months, not people who already know the material.

Funded by a grant from BlueDot Impact.

Full details: https://cnyaisafety.org/events.html