ASEAN × APAC · Online hackathon

AI Safety Hackathon

A weekend for young builders across ASEAN and Asia–Pacific to build tools, evals, and ideas for AI that reflects the people, contexts, and languages of our region.

  • Aug 21–23, 2026
  • Fri – Sun
  • Online
  • $1,000 in prizes
  • When

    August 21–23, 2026

    Fri – Sun

  • Where

    Online

    ASEAN / APAC hours

  • Prizes

    $1,000 pool

    breakdown to be announced

  • Who

    Open

    builders across the region

The brief

Make AI work for our region.

AI is being shaped by a handful of labs and a handful of languages. This hackathon is a weekend for young people across ASEAN and Asia–Pacific to put the region into that story — with tools, evaluations, research, and prototypes that take our contexts, communities, and languages seriously.

You don’t need to be an AI researcher. Bring an idea, a skill, or plain curiosity. Teams form at kickoff, and a set of starting directions help you find a project worth shipping by Sunday.

Directions to explore

Some ways in.

Ideas to spark projects — not fixed tracks. Final themes and prompts are announced before the event.

  • Languages

    Under-resourced ASEAN & APAC languages

    Evaluations, red-teaming, or datasets that probe how well models handle the region’s languages and dialects.

  • Evals

    Regionally-grounded safety evals

    Benchmarks and tests that reflect the cultural and political contexts models actually get used in across the region.

  • Policy & tools

    Tools for safer deployment

    Prototypes, guides, or policy artifacts that help communities and decision-makers put AI to work more safely.

Prizes

$1,000

in prizes

A $1,000 prize pool for the strongest projects. The full breakdown — categories and placements — is announced closer to the event.

How the weekend runs

Three days.

Times and the full agenda are announced before the event.

  1. Fri Aug 21

    Kickoff

    The brief, the directions, and team-forming.

  2. Sat Aug 22

    Build day

    Heads-down building, with check-ins along the way.

  3. Sun Aug 23

    Demos

    Final demos and judging.

Ready to build?

Registration is open on Luma.

Register on Luma

FAQ

Good to know.

Who can join?

Anyone who wants to build for safer, more representative AI — students, developers, designers, researchers, and first-timers across ASEAN and Asia–Pacific. All levels welcome.

Do I need a team?

No. Come solo or with friends — teams form at kickoff, and solo projects are welcome too.

What will I build?

Anything that advances AI safety for the region. The directions above are starting points; final prompts are shared at kickoff.

Does it cost anything?

No — it’s free to take part.

It’s online — how does that work?

Everything runs remotely, in ASEAN/APAC-friendly hours. Joining details are shared with registrants.

How do I register?

Through Luma — hit any “register” button on this page.