Internet Archive Canada and BC + AI are backing two builders through the AI Builders Fellowship: six focused weeks and CA$10,000 across two projects to turn a massive Canadian public archive into open-source experiments.
The material is the Government Publications collection, a large and uneven record of what Canadian governments chose to publish. The brief is deliberately broad. Build a research tool, trace a civic pattern, make a strange interface, turn records into culture, or find another way to help people use, question, and get lost in the public record.
This is not a pitch for another generic AI wrapper. The work should be useful to a specific person or community, imaginative enough to offer a new way into the archive, open enough for others to examine and build on, and scoped tightly enough to become a credible working artifact in six weeks.
Applications closed August 21 at 11:59 PM Pacific. Both finalists build from September 1 through mid-October with archive context from Internet Archive Canada and regular check-ins from BC + AI.
Both finalists present what they built on opening night of Futureproof Festival, October 28, right before Internet Archive founder and digital librarian Brewster Kahle takes the stage.
Read the fellowship brief and application details, then get your Futureproof Festival ticket if you want to be in the room when the work arrives.
Updated September 8, 2026: the award is CA$10,000 across two projects.
Updated October 25, 2026: the showcase is on the opening-night program at 7:25 pm. Jacob Ortiz presents The Archive Argues With Itself, and Daniel Shavit presents What happened on your street? Vancouver through time, from the Archive's records.
