According to Foresight News, Near founders Illia Polosukhin and Alex Skidanov have established a research and development laboratory, NEAR AI. The lab's initial project will be the creation of an 'AI Developer' to address the fundamental issue of building end-to-end Web3 applications based on user intent.

In addition to this, the NEAR Foundation has also set up HZN, an incubator and investment department focused on artificial intelligence projects. This new department will provide support for early-stage Web3 x AI projects.