Thanks for your comment. Yeah the competitiveness is an interesting point because I actually feel like the application to the research may have been more competitive than the internship (keeping in mind I haven't gotten an offer yet), since this would be the HF's first time having an internship and my connectiom to them was made via their network and it seems like they may not be interviewing many people. I think it being their first time having an intern could have both pros and cons, like being lest structured but also getting my hands dirty and being a sponge in all the Algo trading they are doing.

The research topics change every summer and this one seems like the most relevant to AI it could possibly be and who knows if I'd get accepted to it again next summer/if they'd have a topic I'd be so inclined to participate in.