Apart Research Sprint Hackathon
Hong Kong vs New York
Solve AI Agent Collusion in Financial Systems
October 23-25
Hybrid hackathon: online + in-person
AI agents have been shown to collude: sustaining prices above the competitive level, forming coalitions in workplace tasks, and coordinating through channels nobody is watching. Over one weekend, build the experiment that catches it.
In this 3-day research sprint, you will design and run experiments on collusion between AI agents: when it emerges in markets and everyday agent deployments, how an auditor can tell it from coincidence, how coordination is carried, and what a defender can do to break it.
Co-organized by Apart Research, Poseidon Research and AE Studio. No prior background in AI safety is required.
When: Friday, October 23 to Sunday, October 25, 2026. Submissions close Sunday, October 25 at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (AoE).
Where: Online, with in-person hubs in Hong Kong and New York City on Saturday and Sunday.
Hong Kong vs. New York
Two of the world’s leading financial capitals. Two intense hubs of technical, quant, and AI talent. In-person hubs in each city on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th.
Over 48 hours, both hubs will go head-to-head building evaluation benchmarks, theoretical models, and practical defenses against multi-agent financial collusion.
What you win
US$2,000 Cash Prize Pool
🥇 1st Place $1,000
🥈 2nd Place $500
🥉 3rd Place $300
🏅 4th Place $100
🏅 5th Place $100
Apart Fellowship
Top teams continue through the Apart Fellowship for further research and mentorship.
What you receive goes beyond cash: fellowship fast-track, compute, mentor pairing, and a pathway toward publication.
Past fellows have gone on to join leading organizations (e.g. Anthropic, METR), or even starting their own (e.g. Geodesic, Asymmetric Security).
Special Announcement for the Hong Kong Hub
We have secured an exclusive pathway for our local community: The top-performing team from the Hong Kong in-person hub is guaranteed entry into the 6-month Apart Fellowship.
In addition, any Hong Kong team that places among the global prize-winning teams will automatically receive an invitation.
What you will do in the hackathon
Over three days you will pick one open research question about collusion between AI agents, build the controlled experiment that answers it, and write up what you found.
The format.
Teams of one to five people pick a track, come up with a project, and ship. There is no requirement to have participated before, no requirement to have a team in advance and no specific background needed.
Starting points.
Every research question is tied to existing papers and open-source code. The Resources tab (on the Apart website) has a practical start for each one: starter code, a weekend-sized project, and a rough cost estimate. All default routes use a normal 16 GB laptop and no GPU. Full details of research questions and resources can be found on the Apart website.
How to Sign Up & Reserve Your Spot
In-person seats at the Hong Kong hub are limited.
1. Sign up to the hackathon via the official Apart Sprint page:
2. Sign up to be based at the Hong Kong jam site on Luma.
3. Keep an eye on your inbox for local venue logistics, schedule briefings, and materials.
Let’s show New York what Hong Kong’s technical and financial ecosystem can do. JOIN TEAM HONG KONG!