Schmidt Sciences names 28 AI2050 Fellows in fifth cohort, including Nathan Lambert and Alexander Tong

On October 1, Schmidt Sciences announced its fifth cohort of AI2050 Fellows: 28 researchers in total, comprising 22 early-career fellows and 6 senior fellows, who will receive up to $16 million in funding over three years. The program targets long-term research challenges aimed at "making AI genuinely benefit society by 2050." Several selectees announced their awards on social media the same day.

Confirmed

• The fifth AI2050 cohort includes 28 fellows (22 early-career + 6 senior), with up to $16 million in funding over three years (@natolambert)
• Nathan Lambert, author of the RLHF Book and a prominent open-source AI researcher, was selected as an early-career fellow, saying he will continue building and understanding the open-source AI ecosystem to make future AI more accessible and widely distributed
• Alexander Tong was named a 2026 AI2050 Early Career Fellow for his research on molecular generative models; his advisor Frank Noe also shared congratulations in a repost

Why it matters

• AI2050 is a long-term AI research funding program backed by Schmidt Sciences, Eric Schmidt's organization; the scale and size of this cohort signal continued investment in long-horizon AI research (particularly open-source ecosystems and scientific computing). Supporting young scholars like Lambert and Tong helps sustain progress in areas such as open-source RLHF and molecular generative models.

2026-10-01 ~ 2026-10-01 · 5 related posts

• [source] Open-Source AI Researcher Nathan Lambert Named Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Fellow — natolambert · 2026-10-01
• [source] Schmidt Sciences names 28 AI2050 Fellows backed by up to $16 million for hard AI problems — natolambert · 2026-10-01
• [source] Alexander Tong Named 2026 AI2050 Early Career Fellow for Molecular Generative Models — AlexanderTong7 · 2026-10-01

2 near-duplicate retellings: CSProfKGD · FrankNoeBerlin