challenge · online
AIMO Interpretability Challenge (NeurIPS 2026 Competition Track)
When it actually closes
Safe cutoff
Codabench phase end
- Stated
- “November 1, 2026 (no time zone)”
- IANA zone
- UTC
- UTC
- 2026-11-01T12:55:00Z
- Your time
- Sun Nov 1, 12:55 PM UTC (loading your time zone…)
The trap: The website gives a date only. The platform closes at 12:55 UTC: 4:55 AM in Las Vegas, the morning DST ends.
Prizes
$12,500 cash · 7 slots
Main Track: $3,000 (1st), $1,000 (2nd), $600 (3rd). Small Models Track (models under 10B parameters): $2,000, $600, $300. Writeup Prizes: "$5,000 will be awarded for selected technical reports, regardless of their ranking," judged on scientific contribution. The number of writeup awards and how the $5,000 is split are not stated. The tracks are ranked separately and the same method can be entered in both, so a team could in principle win in both tracks and also get a writeup award.
Main Track — 1st
cash
$3,000
Main Track — 2nd
cash
$1,000
Main Track — 3rd
cash
$600
Small Models Track — 1st
cash
$2,000
Small Models Track — 2nd
cash
$600
Small Models Track — 3rd
cash
$300
Writeup Prize(s)
cash
$5,000
Pool for selected technical reports regardless of ranking; number of awards and split not stated, shown here as one pool
Eligibility
Individuals: eligible
The challenge is open to everyone — academic researchers, independent researchers, and industry practitioners alike. There are no restrictions on team size, affiliation, or career level.
Checked for one adult entering alone from Nevada, USA. Rules can differ by country, so read the rule quoted here for where you live.
Entry cost
Free to enter
Payout
unknown
unknown
Rights — what you give up
entrant-keeps
No ownership transfer or license grant to the organizers is stated anywhere. However, an award candidate must open-source its implementation and document its training data, code and bundle well enough for the organizers to reproduce the score, so a winning method effectively becomes public.
Gotchas
- There is no formal official-rules or T&C document. The Codabench terms field just points to the website, which the organizers call authoritative over the paper and Codabench (FAQ 1, issue #6).
- No prize sponsor, payout method, KYC or tax-form process is stated anywhere. The July 2026 proposal paper said the team was 'awaiting confirmation of industrial sponsorship for a 500 USD award' per track.
- The Codabench description still says 'the competition is still in the development phase.'
- The deadline is 12:55 UTC on Nov 1 (about 4:55 AM in Las Vegas), not end of day, and the website states no time zone.