In September 2025, I'd become increasingly convinced that a fieldbuilding program for content creators could solve a long-standing bottleneck of expanding reach and trust beyond the AI safety and EA bubble.
I had graduated from UCLA a few months earlier when I came across the AI-2027 report which had a significant impact on me. I rejected my six-figure tech consulting offer, left my place in LA, and moved to the first place I could find in the Bay Area to contribute to AI Safety. Contrary to my expectations, only a small subset of people were working towards what seemed to be far more important than building yet another AI B2B SaaS.
I wanted to change this. The power of a good external-facing comms effort is underrated. AI in Context, If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies, Rob Miles is the first interaction with AI Safety for many, including mine. It has the power to empower mainstream audiences to act by creating trust and relatability, and meeting them where they’re at- social media. Moreover, I felt that I had the right background to do this- my experience as an activist, ex-founder building products for clients Google & BCG, and operator running one of the largest AI Safety conferences in LA.
In my initial few months of moving to SF, I conducted creator events and campaigns with orgs like CAIS, one of which ended up reaching over 2.5M+ views through 5 creators. While this was impactful, it was clear that we were heavily talent bottlenecked on this new kind of audience builder and educator. These were- The next Rob Miles. The blogger who speaks to Gen Z. The next AI-2027-shaped artifact. And, just as importantly, communicators like Petr Lebedev embedded at Palisade Research who can power dissemination from inside the orgs doing the work.
That's when Austin Chen (who was also interested in this) and I started Frame Fellowship, to find and accelerate the next big communicators in AI safety.
Note: Early bird Applications for Cohort 2.0 are now OPEN! Apply
Video: Intro video for Frame 1.0
We ran our first cohort from January-March 2026- a San Francisco based residential accelerator for content creators focused on AI safety with 11 fellows selected out of 150+ applications. Our applicant pool included youtubers, viral tiktokers, established creators interested in AI safety, creators with unique backgrounds in law, journalism, and defense, all focused on different sub-niche audiences.
The program offered various benefits such as mentorship from leading creators in AI Safety such as Rob Miles, AI in Context, Species, Doom Debates and others, office and studio space, generous funding, and access to the bay area AI Safety, founder, and creator communities.
Frame’s first iteration was a success- producing 260+ pieces of content reaching 7M+ estimated views over just 8 weeks. Fellows significantly grew their reach and audience (many 2-12x'ed), and 60% received post-program funding or contracts/partnerships from FLI, Control AI, BlueDot, Seismic, and others. Moreover, fellows leveraged their audiences to build policy outreach tools, communities that gained 100+ signups in the first week, protests, and research datasets.
Some examples of our fellows work-
Some Success Stories-
Check out other fellow stories on our website! Frame itself also made headlines in The Washington Post and The Transformer, and a mention in SF Standard.
The fellowship also created structured sessions for mentorship, feedback, and collaboration. Here's a few features of the program:
Testimonials:
"We went from EAG to seeing Bernie Sanders to SXSW to Lighthaven to meeting researchers I'd followed on Twitter for years" ~Caitlin Yardley (Creator 6k) - Frame Fellow
"I've probably looked at a thousand grant proposals over the years, and the Frame Fellowship seems like the highest-leverage funding opportunity I've come across." ~Drew Spartz (Species - 300k) - Leading AI Safety Youtuber
"I would've benefited greatly from the support that Frame offers when I was starting out on YouTube. It can be a very lonely career, esp in the beginning. This is likely to reduce burnout and greatly increase their odds of success." ~Siliconversations (150k) - AI Safety animations channel
"This program opened my eyes. Without it, I am 100% positive I would've advanced maybe 5% of what I did in 2 months. A critical part of the journey for me." ~Veronica Hylak (Youtuber 25k) - Frame Fellow
Now the most important part- what did we learn, and what's next!
1. Optimize for inputs, not outcomes. The inputs that matter: more videos, more hypothesis testing, shorter feedback loops, useful connections, sharper theories of change, and calls-to-action that map to them. Outcomes follow inputs.
2. Clarity in schedule, logistics. Work expands to fill the time you give it. Cohort 2 will have more forcing functions and clearer weekly deliverables. Admin work- Reimbursements, visa-related compliance, took significantly longer than I budgeted for.
3. Longer cohort. Fellows consistently flagged that 8 weeks wasn't enough. Cohort 2 might run 10 weeks in-person plus a 2-week remote pre-program.
4. Expand the team. For Cohort 2 we’re looking to hire a team of 2-3. (If you want to get involved, details at the end of the post)
5. Deeper mentor and partner org involvement. In Cohort 1, mentors mostly gave one-off sessions. Partner orgs were similar. For Cohort 2 we're going to match mentors and orgs to specific creators for maximum impact!
The next few years will likely see AI hit a tipping point that drives massive societal and economic change. As AI climbs the list of things people care about, that attention can be leveraged: to empower action, build movements, and demand AI that enables democracy and agency rather than stripping them away.
Doing that requires communicators who can reach people with trust and scale. They are the bridge.
We are guided by three foundational pillars:
What we're aiming for in the next year:
Cohort 2 is scheduled from August to November 2026. There are a few ways to plug in:
We're looking for ambitious communicators who can own a niche, and come up with creative ways to increase distribution.
We're hiring for Cohort 2. I’m looking for high-agency operators. You’re a good fit if you think you can run the program end-to-end just by yourself. Email me at akshyae@framefellowship.com your email will be the application. We are a non-profit that works at startup speed.
If you run an AI safety org doing impactful work, we are opening a new "Amplifier" track where we embed promising fellows to amplify your messages. We can help you 10x your impact by reaching more people in your target audience. get in touch We're raising funds for Cohort 2. Reachout if you’re interested.