Fall 2026 · Practice · Principles · Precedent

Your judgment is the most valuable thing in the age of AI.

This is the place you build it.

A fellowship in San Francisco, with video cohorts, for people who want to do more with AI than learn a tool: to change how they think about it, and what they do with it. Three paths. $180 each, with financial assistance on the application.

Every application is read. You hear back either way.

Tuition$180 per path, flat
Financial assistance available
WhereIn person in San Francisco
Video: Intermediate club and one Wednesday seminar scheduled; Advanced club by waitlist
WhoPeople who want to change how they think about AI
Past cohorts: engineers, product people, AI researchers, UI designers, founders, lawyers, recruiters, executives, students
DeadlineApplications close September 22
One five-minute form covers all three paths

How judgment gets built

Judgment is built by grappling with real things, questioning them, and talking them through with others. Each path does that from a different angle. Pick one, or all three.

I · Practice

Homebrew AI Club

A working session for people running real AI agents, tools, and loops. Members demo their setups live, say what worked and what broke, and we dig into it together.

Advanced is for people who run agents, pipelines, or loops every day; demos go to full depth. Intermediate is for people who want to do much more than simple prompts.

Every other Thursday, 6:30–8pm PT
Advanced: six sessions, Oct 1 to Dec 17 · In person in SF
Intermediate: five sessions, Oct 8 to Dec 10 · By video, screen-shared demos
Advanced video by waitlist: Wednesdays 12–1pm PT
Ten to twenty seats per cohort · Dates on the schedule

See the club →
II · Principles

AI and Civilization

A deep-reading seminar on the texts today's AI arguments came from: Descartes, Turing, Hobbes, Wiener, Schelling. Short readings, sent ahead. Two hours at the table working out what they say.

No lecture and no expert at the head of the table. A moderator keeps the argument honest; everyone has read the same pages. No technical background needed; the readings are the only prerequisite.

Sundays 4–6pm PT
Six sessions, Sept 27 to Nov 1 · In person in SF
Video: Wednesdays 6:30–8:30pm PT, one slot shared with the cases; the seminar with more applicants runs
Eight to fifteen seats

See the seminar →
III · Precedent

How Society Shapes Technology

Cases from 120 years of technologies being sped up, redirected, or stopped, and why. Work through the record, then argue where AI's path will be decided.

Built for people who bring a field with them, whatever it is. The history is the shared ground; your expertise is the contribution.

Mondays 6:30–8:30pm PT
Six sessions, Sept 28 to Nov 2 · In person in SF
Video: Wednesdays 6:30–8:30pm PT, one slot shared with the seminar; the one with more applicants runs
Fixed cohort, same people every week

See the cases →

Not in San Francisco? The club's Intermediate cohort already meets by video. A Wednesday-evening video cohort will run for one of the two seminars: the seminar and the cases share the slot, and the one with more applicants on September 22 runs. If you applied to the other, you'll be offered the one that runs. The Advanced club's Wednesday lunch cohort opens once six people ask for it. Times are Pacific. Nobody pays until a cohort is confirmed.

Mixed cohorts, on purpose. Past cohorts have included engineers and product people, AI researchers, UI designers, founders, lawyers, recruiters, executives, and students. What they had in common was the reason they came: to expand how they think, with the tools as the means. That is still the only entry requirement.

Our approach

Everything else about AI, you can rent. The models, the tools, the agents are the same for you as for everyone else, and they get better whether you do or not. Your judgment is the part that's yours.

There is no course for judgment. It gets built with experience and in company, which is why the method matters as much as the material.

What participants say

On Homebrew AI Club
“I was already building with AI tools before the Bell AI Fellowship. What it changed was the approach. I came out running on a system I built myself, and I use it every day now.”
Michael Albers · former Chief Product Officer, Yahoo!/AOL

Ready?

Pick the path, or paths, that fit how you learn. One five-minute form covers all three. Every application is read for one thing: whether you want to think differently, and will bring what you know to the table. Titles don't decide it. Places go to the people who will make the strongest cohort, and a strong cohort is a varied one, and a deep one.

$180 per path · Financial assistance on the form · Applications close September 22 · You hear back either way within a few days

Who we are

A founder and investor who began as a congressional technology-policy analyst, and a product leader from Yahoo, Visa, and Verizon.

Sunil Paul

Sunil Paul

Serial entrepreneur and investor. Founded four venture-backed companies; investor or board member for five IPOs and four unicorns. Analyzed technology policy at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment and charted climate-tech trajectories with the Gigaton Throwdown. Co-founded Bell AI to build the kind of learning community he wishes existed when he was starting out.

LinkedIn →
Tenni Theurer

Tenni Theurer

Product builder who has led $1.6B businesses and products reaching 500M+ users at Yahoo, Visa, and Verizon. Engineer turned product leader, GM, and founder. Co-founded Bell AI because good judgment about AI is built the way she has always worked: hands-on, with other people.

LinkedIn →