Short, But Packed - December 2025 NYC AI Insider
📅 December Events: Hack Hack Hack!
Join us for AI Hacks Back: Founder Risks, a live panel on how AI is transforming offensive cybersecurity, and what that means for founders today. Cybersecurity and legal experts will break down real-world attacks like large-scale prompt injection, agentic intrusions, “vibe coding” vulnerabilities, and AI-accelerated zero-days, with a focus on what founders can do now to defend at machine speed. Designed for builders, operators, and technical founders, this session will give you a clear, practical view of the risks already emerging in 2025 and how to prepare for 2026. Stay tuned to our newsletter and Luma calendar for event details and registration.
🌟 Featured Events
🤖 Application
Dec 2: Cornell Tech: Builders and Disruptors - Reggie Fils-Aimé (ex-Nintendo) on innovation in AI era
Dec 9: Intro to AI and Vibe Coding Tools Workshop - Hands-on with Lovable & v0. with experts from NYU, Meta & Google
Dec 9: The Future of AI Infrastructure (Oracle & NVIDIA) - Deep dive on GPU orchestration at cloud scale
Dec 10: UGLY TALK: AI for Ecommerce Logistics - Operators from large-scale ecommerce + Acronym VC sharing actionable AI workflows
🛠️ Deep Dives
Dec 2: XPENG VLA2.0: Foundation Model for Physical AI - Industry’s first mass-produced billion-parameter physical AI model
Dec 2: Mel Andrews: False Promises of Fair ML - Princeton CITP talk on algorithmic fairness limitations
Dec 3: MIT: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being - Technology and learning discussion
Dec 3: Asia’s Strategic Edge in AI - Nikkei @ Asia Society
Dec 4: Embodied Ethics: What Dance Teaches Us - Northeastern RAI workshop on moral imagination in tech design. No dance experience needed!
🎭 Networking & Social
Dec 2: NachoTuesday: SaaS & AI Holiday Mixer - Founders, VCs, tech media. Application required, carefully screened
Dec 3: NYC AI Users Happy Hour - AI enthusiasts mixer featuring favorite former speakers
🌟PMAI X TRAE Hackathon!
Pioneering Minds AI partnered with TRAE to host the TRAE SOLO Hackathon NYC, and it was a blast of a day. Over one packed day, founders, engineers, and builders came together to create projects centered on Reliable and Responsible AI.
Powered by TRAE SOLO, the next-gen AI IDE, teams moved from concept → code → deployment with impressive speed. With full plug-in support and API connectivity, participants could integrate external systems, call services directly, and extend the environment with custom agents and tool-chains, turning ambitious ideas into working prototypes in hours, not weeks.
Projects spanned tourism, AI evaluation, fintech, health tech, and more, showcasing both technical depth and a strong sense of purpose.
Thank you to Trae for partnering with us, and to all the mentors, judges, and participants who brought such heart and momentum to the room.
Events like this reflect why we started Pioneering Minds AI: to empower builders to create AI that’s not just powerful—but responsible.
𖠌 Grab Time With Our Mentor & Advisor!
For those of you desire to get more hands on support and mentorship to learn about AI, please grab time with our President, Dr.Nick Gu at https://www.pioneeringminds.ai/mentors !
We are actively onboarding more mentors in the coming months, so stay tuned! If you would like to give back to the younger generation by offering your expertise and insights, please email team@pioneeringminds.ai
🔮 Final Thoughts
Even though December is the holiday season, NYC is still packed with solid AI events for those staying around!
2025 was the year vibe coding went mainstream and AI tools became genuinely useful for builders. The gap between “idea” and “working prototype” has collapsed from weeks to hours. But here’s what I keep thinking about: the tools don’t matter if you’re building the wrong thing. Speed without direction is just faster failure.
As you head into the holidays, I’d encourage you to try one thing: Build something small using the vibe coding tools. A tool for yourself. 15 minutes. Just to feel what’s possible now - and share in comments below!
See you in 2026, pioneers. We’ve got a lot more to build together.
Happy holidays! 🎄
Building the future, one product at a time.
The Pioneering Minds Team