

ICML Night - Instruct.KR X Exa AI Search Technology Meetup in Seoul
Instruct.KR x Exa: AI Search Technology Meetup in Seoul is a community meetup for researchers, engineers, and builders interested in Search, Information Retrieval, RAG, AI-native search, and Retrieval Infrastructure for AI agents.
This meetup began with Max Buckley from Exa visiting Seoul for ICML 2026. Exa is building search infrastructure for AI agents, and Max will share perspectives on AI-native search, vibe coding at the frontier, search and information retrieval research, and how retrieval is evolving in modern AI systems.
Beyond a single invited talk, we hope this meetup becomes a gathering point for the search and AI community around ICML 2026 in Seoul. We aim to bring together ML/AI researchers, retrieval engineers, RAG builders, startup teams, and open-source contributors to discuss the present and future of search technology.
The entire event will be conducted in English.
Hosted by: Instruct.KR
🎤 Call for Speakers
We are actively looking for researchers, engineers, and builders to share their insights. If you have an interesting topic or project to discuss, please apply here: [LINK]
👥 Who Should Join
This event is for people interested in:
• Search and information retrieval research
• RAG, AI agents, search APIs, and web search systems
• Dense retrieval, sparse retrieval, reranking, indexing, vector databases, and hybrid search
• Production retrieval systems and AI infrastructure
• Meeting the AI/ML community in Seoul around ICML 2026
• Learning more about Exa and the future of AI-native search
• Sharing search, RAG, or agent-related research and projects with the community
🗓️ Programs
The detailed schedule and speaker lineup will be updated soon.
🧠 Topics of Interest
We welcome talks and discussions on:
• Search and information retrieval research
• AI-native search systems
• Dense, sparse, and hybrid retrieval
• RAG pipelines and production retrieval systems
• Rerankers, indexing, evaluation, and retrieval latency
• Web search APIs and search infrastructure for AI agents
• Agent memory, tool use, and long-context retrieval
• Vibe coding and frontier AI development workflows
• ICML 2026 accepted or related research previews
• Career paths across research, engineering, startups, and open-source
⚡ Talk Formats
• Lightning Talk: 5–10 minutes
• Technical Talk: 20–30 minutes
• Fireside chat / panel participation welcome
• Language: English
Whether you are a retrieval researcher, AI engineer, RAG builder, startup founder, open-source contributor, or simply curious about the future of search, we would love to have you join us in Seoul!