AI Engineer & LLM Tooling Intern

To promote and accelerate the whole brain emulation, our foundation is focused on Encouraging scientific collaboration to create stepping-stone technologiesPublishing reviews of scientific literature and technology developmentsMaintaining R&D roadmaps to identify and address scientific and engineering challengesIncreasing general awareness of the human adaptability gap and the possibility that neural prosthesis, whole brain emulation and substrate-independent mind may offer solutionsHosting conferences or workshops, and providing informational material , IMPORTANT Please apply through our Google Form . LinkedIn Applicants - Please copy and paste the link below to fill out the Google Form https //docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScx_ry6OnDPuHsvUX6R8s-OQcnE0TrLophHsWWUo7oU1uZNow/viewform Your application may not be seen if you apply via LinkedIn or Idealist. Please apply using our Google Form. If your qualifications are a strong match, we’ll be in touch about the next steps. About Carboncopies Foundation The Carboncopies Foundation is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the science and technology of whole brain emulation - the process of transferring the structure and functions of a brain from its original substrate to another computational substrate of a neural prosthesis. Founded by neuroscientists and technologists, we serve as a nexus for research collaboration, education, and public discourse on the path toward preserving and extending human cognition. Our work spans multiple disciplines including neuroscience, computer science, nanotechnology, and philosophy. Through workshops, webinars, publications, and community building, we bring together researchers, students, and enthusiasts who share our vision of developing technologies that may one day allow for the precise mapping and functional recreation of neural architectures. We believe that whole brain emulation represents not only a profound scientific challenge but also a potential pathway to extending human experience, knowledge, and consciousness beyond current biological limitations. For over 15 years, we have been at the forefront of research and development in this field, fostering collaboration between leading neuroscientists, technologists, and visionaries who share our mission. Our efforts have been powered by a dedicated community—over 100 volunteers have contributed to our initiatives over the years, with 30+ actively driving our programs forward today. This is a REMOTE UNPAID Fall Intern position* Position Overview We are seeking an AI Engineer Intern with a tooling mindset to build, integrate, and maintain the AI systems that power our research workflows. While our researchers focus on the "what," you will focus on the "how" shipping LLM-powered applications, agent pipelines, and developer tooling that keep our AI systems scalable, cost-effective, and efficient with tokens and compute. This role is ideal for a full-stack AI engineer who lives in TypeScript and Python, works fluently with agentic coding tools like Claude Code and Antigravity CLI, and wants to ship production AI features within a mission-driven neuroscience organization. Key Responsibilities LLM Application Development Build and ship LLM-powered features end to end, from RAG pipelines and embeddings/semantic search to streaming chat experiences (SSE) and production FastAPI/Node.js APIs, designed for token efficiency.AI Tooling & Agentic Workflows Drive adoption of AI-assisted engineering with tools like Claude Code, Antigravity CLI, and the Mistral API family. Build internal CLI tools, prompts, and automation that accelerate the whole engineering team.RAG & Vector Infrastructure Design and maintain retrieval-augmented generation pipelines with vector databases (ChromaDB, Pinecone, or Qdrant), including embedding generation, chunking strategies, and re-ranking to keep prompts lean.Model Integration & Cost Optimization Integrate and benchmark multiple AI providers (Mistral, OpenAI, OpenRouter) with real-time token tracking, spend monitoring, and automatic routing to the cheapest capable model. As a nonprofit, we prioritize free tiers, credits, and open-weight alternatives wherever possible.CI/CD & Developer Experience Automate build, test, and deployment pipelines with GitHub Actions and Docker, keeping research code flowing smoothly into production.Full-Stack Development Contribute across the stack (Next.js/React/SolidJS frontends, PostgreSQL backends) to build and ship user-facing AI tools like our CarbonGPT research assistant. Qualifications Languages Strong TypeScript and Python skills, with experience building production APIs and asynchronous backend services.LLM Integration Experience Hands-on work with LLM APIs (Mistral, OpenAI, OpenRouter), embeddings, streaming responses, and RAG pipelines. Bonus points for experience with prompt caching, context-window management, and other token-efficiency techniques.Budget Consciousness You think in cost per request. You know how to exploit free tiers, nonprofit credits, and open-source/self-hosted models (e.g., Ollama, vLLM) to keep spend near zero without sacrificing quality.AI Tooling Fluency Practical experience with agentic coding assistants such as Claude Code, Antigravity CLI, Cursor, or similar. You should know how to prompt, configure, and orchestrate these tools to multiply your output.Full-Stack Foundation Comfortable across Next.js, React, Node.js, and relational databases (PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, or similar).DevOps Toolkit Proficiency with Git, Docker, and GitHub Actions CI/CD. Cloud experience (AWS) is a plus.Product Sense Ability to take an AI feature from idea to live production, including auth, and monitoring.Educational Background Currently pursuing (or holding) a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field. Time Commitment Flexible, approximately 20 hours per week , Internship time frame is 6-9 months. To apply for this position Primary method Apply through our Google Form LinkedIn Applicants - Please copy and paste the link below to fill out the Google Form https //docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScx_ry6OnDPuHsvUX6R8s-OQcnE0TrLophHsWWUo7oU1uZNow/viewform If your qualifications are a strong match, we’ll be in touch about the next steps. The Carboncopies Foundation is committed to diversity and welcomes applications from all qualified individuals regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Website https //carboncopies.org/ LinkedIn https //www.linkedin.com/company/carbon-copies Instagram https //www.instagram.com/carboncopies_foundation/ Facebook https //www.facebook.com/groups/carboncopies/ Twitter https //twitter.com/carboncopiesorg YouTube https //www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNZLgW-6Xcp6wfyb2Y_Thw