Bring it home: a call to Bengalis in AI

Walk into an AI team in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, London, Singapore or the Bay Area and you may well meet a Bengali leading it. Bengal has always exported its talent well. What it has done less well is give that talent a way to contribute to Bengal itself.

That is a loss for both sides. Bengal needs the experience its people have gained building AI at scale. And many of those people would welcome a way to put that experience to work at home, without having to move back.

An open invitation

Bengal AI Collective is open to Bengalis and friends of Bengal working in AI anywhere in the world. Every membership circle welcomes you, from the Tech Leaders Council to the Startup Circle and our Fellows. You do not need to live in Kolkata to belong.

Bringing it home, in any capacity

Bringing it home does not mean moving back. It means connecting with AI in West Bengal through the Collective and contributing in whatever capacity suits you: as an adviser, researcher, mentor, teacher, sponsor or partner, from wherever you live.

Share what you know. Join a task force, review research or mentor a founder in Kolkata, all remotely. An hour of your judgement can save someone here months of trial and error.

Open doors. Connect Kolkata to the companies, labs and networks you work in. Partnerships, investment and customers often start with one introduction.

Stay connected. Each April, around Poila Boishakh, the Bengali New Year, we will hold our flagship, the Bengal AI Dialogue, in Kolkata, where Bengal's AI minds from around the world meet the city's tech leaders, founders and academics, in person and online.

How to start

Write to connect@bengalaicollective.org with a short note on who you are, where you work and what you would like to contribute. Membership is free for individuals and by invitation only, with the agreement of existing members. We read every note ourselves.