FAQ
The questions you might have - this is regularly updated. Contact us if you can't find your answer here.
❓ Not sure I understand the program
Ok cool program, but I don't have 10 to 15 hours per week
It's an average, not a strict requirement
Some weeks you'll do 3 hours, others you'll binge an entire weekend
If you're in France between Christmas and New Year, we're not tracking your time
We care about monthly progress, not weekly time logs
What we actually measure:
Is the project moving forward?
Are you delivering what you said you would at quarterly reviews?
Is the code quality maintaining standards?
Ok cool program, but I don't have a project or ideas
Then this program isn't for you right now, and that's okay.
Here's why we require existing projects or clear ideas:
What we fund: Builders who are already scratching their own itch, solving problems they're obsessed with, and would code this regardless of money.
What we don't fund: Developers looking for project ideas or trying to come up with something "hard for AI" just to get funding.
Why this matters:
Projects without intrinsic motivation rarely survive 6+ months
The best code comes from solving real problems you deeply understand
Labs can tell the difference between genuine complexity and artificial difficulty
What you can do instead:
Build your confidence through open source — Contribute to existing projects, get comfortable with complex codebases (we even have a discovery platform for this)
Wait until you have an itch to scratch — The best projects come from frustration with existing solutions
Start small on your own — Code something for 20-30 hours first, see if it excites you, then apply
I would make more money freelancing, the pay is not high enough
You're right. If this were a freelance contract, the rate would be low. But here's the key difference: this is a grant to fund a project you'd build anyway, not payment for contract work. This is NOT A PAY, it's a grant. Think of it this way:
If you're already spending evenings/weekends on a side project you're passionate about, this grant gives you €30k to keep doing exactly that
It's not about replacing your income, it's about funding your ambition
The real value compounds: you keep all IP rights for commercial use, get visibility with top AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind), and potentially get flown to SF to meet researchers
If your goal is to maximize hourly rate, freelancing is definitely better. But if you're building something you believe in and want funding without investor dilution or client management, this is designed for that.
I want a full-time job, not a grant
This isn't employment - it's funding for independent builders.
What this is:
A grant to fund YOUR project while you maintain autonomy
You work when you want, how you want, with quarterly check-ins
You keep all commercial rights to build a business if you want
What this isn't:
A job interview in disguise
A probation period before full-time employment
A contractor relationship with daily management
If you want full-time employment:
The SF trip for top performers might lead to intros with labs who ARE hiring
Your project could become a business you run full-time (many past grant recipients did this)
Working on this kind of initiative is a great signal for employers and definitely something you can flex about on your resume
Can I use AI extensively to code on my project?
The problem with AI-heavy development for our use case:
If you iterate with Claude for 3.5 hours instead of coding for 5 hours, you're essentially having Claude write your code
That creates synthetic data, code written in AI patterns, by AI logic
When we create benchmarks from that code, we're testing AI on AI-generated patterns
The evaluation becomes circular and useless
What we're actually looking for:
Code with YOUR mental models, YOUR architecture decisions, YOUR problem-solving patterns
Projects where AI agents currently fail because they haven't seen this thinking before
Genuine human expertise at the frontier, not AI-assisted approximations
What IS allowed:
Autocompletion is fine (like GitHub Copilot's inline suggestions), you're still structuring the logic
Occasional use when you're truly stuck on something (ask us first if unsure)
50/50 workflow: one day exploring with Claude, next day refactoring/rewriting by hand
The self-assessment test: If you're thinking "without AI, I'd go 10x slower", your project isn't complex enough for current models. That's actually GOOD for normal development, but it's not what labs need for frontier benchmarks.
Bottom line: We're paying you to write code that AI can't write yet. If AI is writing most of it, we're funding the wrong thing.
I work in a team / want to collaborate with others
This is not an issue; many options are possible to make this work. Apply anyway, and we will discuss if you're selected.
⚖️ Legal questions
Can I do this alongside my full-time job?
Generally, yes, you can do that in addition to a full-time job as long as:
Your employment contract doesn't have a strict exclusivity clause preventing side projects
You're not working on something that directly competes with your employer
You're doing this on your own time (evenings/weekends)
Many of our developers have full-time jobs; this is specifically designed for people with day jobs who code on the side projects
Your employer typically can't prevent you from working on personal projects unless explicitly stated in your contract
Do I need to create a legal status for legal compliance and handle taxation?
Usually, yes, but it depends on where you're currently living. We have experience with this kind of topic and can help.
The licensing terms bother me: indefinite exclusive license for AI use
Let's break down what the license actually means, because we drafted it to be as developer-friendly as possible while meeting lab requirements:
What we CAN do (and labs can do):
Use your code to create benchmarks and evaluations
Train models using your code (post-training, pre-training)
That's it. Literally just AI training and evaluation purposes.
What we CANNOT do:
Launch a commercial product using your code
Compete with you if you productize your project
Sublicense it for non-AI purposes
Prevent you from using your own code
What YOU keep:
Full commercial rights for non-AI use
You can build a SaaS, sell licenses, offer services, whatever you want
You own the code; we just have specific usage rights
If you want to start your own AI lab someday, we can discuss (that's the only restriction)
Why this structure?
Labs need assurance that the benchmark won't be contaminated by open-sourcing too early
You need assurance that you're not signing away your business future
The contract is 1.5 pages in plain English, if a sentence confuses you, it's our fault, not legalese
Context matters: This isn't a typical "company wants your IP" situation. We're not building products with your code. We're using it to measure where AI fails so it can improve. You get paid, keep your upside, and help advance the field.
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