The Clean Data Alliance is partnering with You.com for Build with YOU: The AI Agent Hackathon on Friday, September 11, in New York City.
The challenge sounds simple: build an AI agent that improves through feedback, experience, or new information.
But what happens when the information teaching the agent is wrong, outdated, collected without clear permission, or stripped of its original context? An agent can learn. It can also learn the wrong thing faster.
Better agents require better data
AI agents increasingly act on people's behalf. They search, recommend, decide, remember, and adapt. Each interaction creates another signal that may influence what the system does next.
That creates technical questions and human ones:
Did the person authorize the data’s use?
Is the information accurate and current?
Can you trace where it came from?
Can the person correct or remove it?
Who takes responsibility when the agent gets it wrong?
Does the system learn from meaningful feedback, or does it reinforce an earlier mistake?
The above affects the reliability of every agent that learns from people.
The Clean Data Alliance advocates for data that is:
Clean
Permissioned
Longitudinal
Verified
Controlled by the person it represents
Those principles give builders a practical foundation for developing agents that people can trust.
Building the principles into the product
The hackathon brings together AI engineers, technical founders and builders for one day of development using live web data, multi-agent orchestration, secure sandboxes and managed integrations.
Teams will create prototypes showing how an agent can improve through feedback or experience.
We want builders to think past the first successful demo; a strong agent should also demonstrate:
Clear authorization for collecting and using personal data
Traceable sources and changes
Ways for people to inspect and correct what the system believes
Controls that prevent one bad signal from becoming a permanent assumption
Honest disclosure about what the agent knows, remembers and changes
Accountable ownership when outcomes cause harm
This is where responsible data practice becomes product design.
From principles to working prototypes
The event includes support from engineers at You.com, CrewAI, Daytona and One. Builders will have access to search and research APIs, secure coding environments, orchestration tools, and hundreds of integrations.
The top projects will receive developer credits and prizes. Winning teams will also be featured through You.com and Clean Data Alliance channels.
But the larger opportunity is to show what responsible AI development looks like in practice.
We do not need agents that collect everything and remember forever.
We need agents that learn with permission, carry the evidence behind what they believe and give people a meaningful way to correct the record.
That is the standard the Clean Data Alliance wants to help builders set.
Build with YOU: The AI Agent Hackathon
Friday, September 11
9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
124 E 14th Street, New York City
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with space limited to approximately 80–100 builders.