XPRIZE, How Humans can Collaborate with Powerful AI to Solve Big Problems?

XPRIZE, How Humans can Collaborate with Powerful AI to Solve Big Problems?

Jun 24, 2016 @ 20:07 | 

XPRIZE, the global leader in incentivized prize competitions, today announced that registration is now open and guidelines are available for the $5 million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, a four-year global competition challenging teams to develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to tackle the world’s greatest challenges.

The AI competition is XPRIZE’s first open challenge where teams will define their own goals and create AI applications that solve some of humanity’s most pressing challenges in areas such as healthcare, education, energy & environment, global development and exploration.

“In the coming decade, as XPRIZE strives to achieve its impact mission through incentive competitions and crowd-sourcing, we see tremendous opportunity in this emerging generation of problem solvers to use AI to solve humanity’s grandest challenges,” said Marcus Shingles, CEO of XPRIZE. “The IBM Watson AI XPRIZE is intended to promote and progress the notion of ‘AI for impact’ among the global bold innovator crowd, both the established community of practitioners, as well as encourage newcomers to experiment and ultimately demonstrate how AI can be used as a tool for good.”


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Teams have until December 1, 2016 to register through the XPRIZE website for the four-year competition, and then will have until March 1, 2017 to submit a detailed development and testing plan for their proposed solution. There will be three subsequent rounds of selection each fall during which a panel of expert judges will choose the top 10 teams that will advance to compete at IBM Watson sponsored events where they can receive Milestone Prizes.

“Rather than set a single, universal goal for all teams, this competition allows teams to define their own challenges and demonstrate their solutions, encouraging myriad problem-solving approaches,” said Amir Banifatemi, XPRIZE lead for the IBM Watson AI competition. “This more autonomous approach for running an incentive competition is new for XPRIZE, as we are always trying to innovate our model, and we are excited to have found a like-minded partner in the IBM Watson team.”

The competition culminates in three finalists participating in the Grand Prize competition on the TED2020 stage in front of in-person and online audiences. Teams will be judged based on the standards they set in their plans, as well as the performance and scalability of their AI application, with the heaviest weight placed on the potential for solutions to achieve an exponential impact.

“Cognitive solutions can understand the world’s data, reason with purpose, learn at scale, and interact with humans naturally, holding the key to solving some of society’s greatest challenges,” said Stephen Gold, vice president, IBM Watson. “The IBM Watson AI XPRIZE will stir innovation and empower a global group of developers, entrepreneurs, and organizations to push the boundaries of human-machine collaboration, forever changing for the better the way in which we live and work.”

A $3M Grand Prize, $1M Second Place Prize and $500K Third Place Prize will be awarded to the teams that receive the top scores from a panel of independent judges with the final winner determined based on the results of live in-person and online audience voting during TED2020. A total of $500K will be awarded by the judges for special accomplishments and Milestone Prizes over the several rounds of competition.


About XPRIZE

XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $30M Google Lunar , the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon, the $15M Global Learning, the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder, the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery, the $7M Adult Literacy, the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy  and the $5M IBM Watson AI.


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