For Researchers
Help us build the AI Physicist
An invitation to collaborate
FirstPrinciples is building the AI Physicist to explore new ways of facilitating scientific discovery. Our moonshot goal is to create a system capable of developing a new theoretical framework that unifies (or transcends) quantum mechanics and general relativity by the end of 2035.
The complexity of modern physics is outpacing traditional research systems. We are navigating petabytes of data across various scales and scientific disciplines. While academia is crucial to research, it does not have the same access to infrastructure that frontier AI labs do. Meanwhile, frontier AI labs often operate in commercial environments, which restricts their ability to participate openly in the scientific process. FirstPrinciples exists to bridge this gap by uniting researchers, theorists, engineers and innovators globally to participate in an open effort to build the AI Physicist. Together, we aim to build an accessible, globally shared foundation of AI-enabled science for the next generation of scientific discovery.
Your work matters
Building an AI Physicist capable of scientific reasoning is as much a theoretical challenge as a technical one. It requires advances in machine learning and physics, naturally, but must also exist within a metascientific framework that rigorously reflects how scientific knowledge is produced. Such a system must ingest data, generate hypotheses, test competing models, and refine its reasoning autonomously.
Doing this well requires expertise from many different domains. Every insight shared will contribute to our work on the AI Physicist and also to the larger effort of making AI a genuine partner in scientific research and discovery.
Where curiosity meets collaboration, progress follows.
How to get involved
Theo Collaborators Program
The Theo Collaborators Program is a four-month, part-time research engagement for late-stage PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, early-career faculty, and industry researchers with strong theoretical backgrounds in quantum information theory. Collaborators will work directly with the AI Physicist to evaluate research questions, review AI-generated theoretical outputs, and help shape standards for rigorous, credible AI-assisted physics.
FirstPrinciples Fellowship Program
The FirstPrinciples Fellowship is a fixed-term, full-time research program for PhD or post-doctoral researchers in AI, machine learning, and physics. Fellows will own a well-scoped research direction and work directly with the FirstPrinciples’ research and engineering teams to design and evaluate new methods that improve the AI Physicist’s ability to reason about fundamental physics.
Open research collaborations
We maintain open research collaborations across architecture design, reasoning, and theory formation. Collaborators can help us develop modules, design benchmarks, or propose new evaluation frameworks for scientific reasoning.
Data, models, and benchmarks
We are building collaborations with research institutions, groups and developers to create open-source tools, interfaces, and simulation environments that advance scientific reasoning. This effort will include shared compute resources, model-evaluation frameworks, and integrations with existing scientific software.
FirstPrinciples Talks
As part of our effort to encourage open collaboration within the scientific community, we host regular FirstPrinciples Talks. This online webinar format is used to share and discuss emerging ideas and research from featured guest speakers at the intersection of AI and fundamental science. We welcome new participants, both as guest speakers or audience members.
Partner with us
Join a growing network of researchers, engineers, and collaborators interested in advancing how science is done. Your participation can help define what discovery looks like in the era of AI.
Partner with Us
Join a growing network of researchers, engineers, and collaborators interested in advancing how science is done. Your participation can help define what discovery looks like in the era of AI.
Values
Curiosity
We foster a relentless curiosity that drives us to explore the unknown and push the boundaries of understanding.
Ambition
We dare to dream big and aim for ambitious goals, challenging ourselves to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
Risk Taking
We embrace risks, knowing that innovation often requires stepping into the unknown and being unafraid of failure.
Collaboration
We believe in the power of collaboration, working together across disciplines and borders to achieve our shared vision.
Results-driven
We are committed to making a positive impact for all of humanity, driving our work towards tangible results that benefit people worldwide.