Free AI events in San Diego

You don't have to spend a dollar to plug into San Diego's AI scene. Every free AI event in the city, gathered in one place and verified daily: meetups, workshops, hackathons, and talks with no ticket price.

Meetups Workshops Hackathons Conferences Networking

Oct

Thu

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM PDT

U.S.-Mexico AI Summit 2026

Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicineby U.S.-Mexico AI Summit

Cross-border summit in La Jolla on artificial intelligence governance, innovation and policy collaboration between U.S. and Mexican academic, public-interest and technology partners.

ConferenceFreeAll levelsResearchersBusinessDevelopersStudents

8:00 AM – 1:00 PM PDT

CNS Research Review 2026

UC San Diegoby UC San Diego Center for Networked Systems

Two-day UC San Diego research review for corporate members and invited guests, covering networked systems research including machine learning systems, generative AI, AI infrastructure and data-driven computing.

ConferenceFreeAdvancedResearchersDevelopersBusiness

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM PDT

Platform Engineering & AI: San Diego

by Intuit Open Source Meetup

Intuit Open Source Meetup hosts a San Diego evening of platform-engineering and AI discussions, developer talks, demonstrations and networking for people working with open-source technology.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT

Retrieval vs Inference

Venture X San Diegoby San Diego Software Engineers

Technical San Diego Software Engineers talk on when strong retrieval instructions and the right information can solve a problem without relying on more model inference.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

Oct

Sat

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM PDT

North County AI Coffee Chat

Pannikin Coffee & Teaby North County AI

Informal Saturday morning coffee meetup in Oceanside where North County builders, practitioners and learners compare AI projects, tooling and open questions. No agenda, no speakers, just conversation over coffee.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersGeneral

Oct

Mon

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM PDT

AI Privacy, IP, Legal, and Ethics

University of San Diego Knauss Center for Business Educationby University of San Diego

Workshop session on privacy, intellectual property, legal and ethical issues that shape responsible AI adoption.

WorkshopFreeBeginnerBusinessStudentsGeneral

Oct

Wed

8:00 AM – 8:00 PM PDT

Solix AI Hackathon

UC San Diego Atkinson Hall, Qualcomm Instituteby Solix Technologies, Inc.

Three-day enterprise AI hackathon at UC San Diego with tracks in data and AI, AI safety and security, pharma, finance, healthcare and social good.

HackathonFreeIntermediateDevelopersResearchersStudents

Nov

Mon

4:30 PM – 8:00 PM PST

San Diego Data Foundations Meetup

Intuit Incby Raj Parameswaran

San Diego practitioner meetup hosted by Intuit on the data platforms, semantic layers and reliable foundations that AI products depend on. The agenda is still being finalized, but registration is open.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopersBusiness

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST

AI Startup Pitch Day Finale

University of San Diego Knauss Center for Business Educationby University of San Diego

Final workshop session and pitch day for people developing AI-driven venture concepts, following the series on AI trends, startups and responsible adoption.

WorkshopFreeBeginnerBusinessStudentsGeneral

Nov

Wed

1:00 PM – 6:30 PM PST

Bridging Biomedical Breakthroughs Summit: AI in Biomedical Innovation

UC San Diegoby UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences

Fourth annual half-day UC San Diego summit on how AI is accelerating biomedical innovation across therapeutics, diagnostics and medical imaging, with a CEO fireside chat, a venture panel, faculty pitches and a networking reception.

ConferenceFreeAll levelsResearchersBusinessStudents

Nov

Thu

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST

Claude Code Users Group: November Monthly Meeting

University of San Diego Loma Hallby Claude Code Users Group

Monthly San Diego session at the University of San Diego working through agentic coding practice: Claude Code fundamentals, the Claude API, and building with the Model Context Protocol.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

Nov

Sat

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM PST

Nextgen Healthcare Revolution 2026

Knobbe Martens San Diegoby Nextgen Healthcare Revolution

One-day conference in Carmel Valley for clinicians and health innovators, built on three pillars, the first being AI-enabled healthcare technology across diagnostics, treatment planning and patient outcomes.

ConferenceFreeAll levelsBusinessResearchersGeneral

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM PST

Nextgen Healthcare Revolution 2026

Knobbe Martensby Nextgen Healthcare Revolution

One-day Carmel Valley conference for clinicians, innovators and entrepreneurs, centered on AI-enabled healthcare technologies alongside non-invasive procedures and the changing role of people in medicine.

ConferenceFreeAll levelsBusinessResearchersGeneral

Nov

Mon

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM PST

Women In Business AI Workshop

Santee Chamber of Commerceby San Diego and Imperial SBDC Network

Hands-on Santee workshop for women business owners, solopreneurs and professionals who want to apply Gemini, NotebookLM and related AI tools to a real operational problem and leave with a custom assistant.

WorkshopFreeBeginnerBusinessGeneral

Nov

Sat

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM PST

North County AI Coffee Chat

Pannikin Coffee & Teaby North County AI

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersGeneral

Dec

Sat

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM PST

North County AI Coffee Chat

Pannikin Coffee & Teaby North County AI

An informal Saturday coffee meetup in Oceanside for North County people building with, working with or learning about AI. Bring a current project, a question or simply curiosity and meet local practitioners.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersGeneral

Dec

Sat

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM PST

North County AI Coffee Chat

Pannikin Coffee & Teaby North County AI

Informal Saturday morning coffee meetup in Oceanside for North County people building with, working with or learning about AI. Bring a project, a practical question or simple curiosity, and meet local practitioners.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersGeneral