The highest paid internships, scholarships and residencies in AI in 2026

The Anthropic AI Safety Fellows Program is a four-month, full-time research fellowship “designed to accelerate AI safety research and foster research talent,” Anthropic says on its website.

The goal of the program is to help fellows produce public research. More than 80 percent of fellows from previous classes have written papers, Anthropic said.

Participants will receive direct mentoring from leading researchers in AI, including Jan Leike, Sam Bowman, Sara Price, Alex Tamkin and Nina Panickssery. They will receive a weekly stipend of $3,850 and an additional $15,000 per month for computing funding, as well as access to workspace in Berkeley or London.

Applications for the next cohorts – which will begin in May and July 2026 – are open until January 12, 2026.

You can apply here.

The OpenAI Residency is a six-month program that brings participants into the organization as full-time employees to work alongside research teams on advanced AI projects.

Residents are integrated into one of the OpenAI research teams, where they work on “ambitious projects that push the boundaries of AI,” OpenAI says on its website.

Residents receive mentorship, contribute to ongoing research, and may be considered for full-time positions after the program. Residents receive $18,300 per month.

The role is based in San Francisco. Applicants must have strong programming skills, a solid foundation in advanced mathematics, and the ability to execute complex technical projects independently.

OpenAI said it plans to review applications and begin interviews as early as January 2026. Interviews will likely involve multiple technical assessments and residency start dates are flexible.

You can apply here.

Google is accepting applications for its student researchers program on a rolling basis, with the window expected to remain open until July 17 next year.

The initiative targets doctoral students based in the United States. students in computer science and related fields, offering flexible, project-based research roles within teams including Google DeepMind and Google Research.

Participants will be based in one of several locations across the United States and work on exploratory projects “that drive scientific progress across a multitude of research areas,” Google says on its website.

The position pays a base salary between $113,000 and $150,000, depending on location and experience.

You can apply here.

Google offers several early career opportunities, including software engineering positions designed for candidates completing their Ph.D. programs and marked with the “Early Career” tag.

Meta has several research internships open for stays of 12 to 24 weeks with pay ranging from $7,650 to over $12,000 per month, depending on experience and location.

Research areas include neural rendering, natural language processing, generative modeling, and computer vision.

You can browse available internships and apply here.

Meta also has open roles for visiting PhD students. students in technical fields from institutions such as the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California at Berkeley or the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences or the Center for Data Science at New York University.

Over the course of a year, researchers will collaborate with Meta and their university, working part-time during the school year and full-time during summer vacation.

Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort opened on November 17 and will close on January 9. The program begins in fall 2026.

You can apply here.