The Oops!…AI Did It Again Challenge addresses the urgent need to equip young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to navigate AI, which is rapidly reshaping their learning, creativity, relationships, and mental health.
Donor Name: Young Futures
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 10/24/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The initiative comes at a critical juncture when over half of young people (51%) report using generative AI, primarily for information gathering and brainstorming. Research from Young Futures’ Youth Listening Tour and from partners in the digital wellness space reveals that teens often use these powerful tools alone, in secret, and without clear guidance, leading to anxiety, uncertainty, and missed opportunities for support.
The AI Did It Again Challenge is seeking applications for solutions across four key themes:
- Youth-Powered AI: Projects where teens build, challenge, or creatively remix AI tools.
- AI in Learning, Work, and Creativity: Resources that help youth use AI to learn and create without sacrificing critical thinking or originality.
- AI in Relationships and Mental Health: Programs that help youth navigate AI companionship and mental health tools safely and critically.
- Intergenerational Guidance: Projects that equip adults to have supportive, informed conversations about AI with the young people in their lives.
The Oops!… Al Did It Again Challenge seeks to fund and scale solutions that:
- Promote thoughtful, transparent, or supportive interactions between young people and Al technologies
- Are led or designed by young people, or developed in close collaboration with them (although applicants can be any age)
- Respond to the developmental needs of adolescents – including mental health, identity, and agency – as they encounter, question, or shape Al.
Funding Information
Grants ranging in size from $25,000 to $100,00; a total of up to $1M.
Grant Period
The grant term will be April 2026–March 2027.
Eligible Projects
Eligible projects should promote thoughtful, transparent, or supportive interactions between young people and AI technologies, respond to the developmental needs of adolescents, and be co-designed with or meaningfully informed by young people. This could include programs for young people and/or their adult champions, tech-based solutions, campaigns, and applied research.
Eligibility Criteria
- Be based in the U.S. and registered as a non-profit with 501(c)(3) or tax-exempt status under fiscal sponsorship.
- Submit an application, and all written and verbal correspondence in English.
- May not use funds to support lobbying.
- Demonstrate evidence of community insight and engagement, either through prior work or the potential of their emerging approach.
- Designate an individual leader who is coachable, self-aware, collaborative and eager to actively participate in Young Futures Academy.
- Engage youth in the design, execution, and evaluation of its solution(s) and has minor protection policies in place.
For more information, visit Young Futures.
