IBM Watson and XPRIZE Launch $5 Million AI Challenge to Drive Innovation in Healthcare and Beyond

In the first half of 2016, artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare made significant strides and gained substantial support overseas. VCBeat learned from multiple international media outlets that as Qualcomm’s $10 million Tricorder XPRIZE fund project neared its conclusion, the XPRIZE Foundation, in partnership with IBM Watson, launched a $5 million open challenge to promote the development of AI applications in healthcare. Of course, such AI technologies can also be applied to education, energy, environmental protection, global development, and exploration.

IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Fund Project Promotes the Development of Artificial Intelligence

“Moving forward, XPRIZE will achieve its goal of expanding its influence through incentive competitions and crowdsourcing. We are entering a great era where AI is used to solve humanity’s grand challenges,” said Marcus Shingles, CEO of XPRIZE. The IBM Watson AI XPRIZE aims to advance the concept that “AI is impact” among bold innovators worldwide, including both established practitioners and daring newcomers, to experiment with and demonstrate how AI can serve as a tool for the benefit of humanity.

Unlike previous XPRIZE Foundation initiatives, such as the Tricorder XPRIZE, which challenged teams to develop portable medical scanners, and the Ansari XPRIZE for suborbital flight, this competition allows participants to set their own goals and focus on addressing different problems. (The Tricorder XPRIZE was launched in late 2013 and concluded in 2017. After two rounds of consolidation, only seven finalists remained; one team withdrew voluntarily, while another was forced to withdraw after its product prototype was detained by U.S. Customs.)

“Unlike setting a single, universal goal for all organizations, this competition allows teams to define their own challenges and propose solutions, which will inspire countless approaches to problem-solving,” said Amir Banifatemi, head of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. “At XPRIZE, we are always innovating our model, and we are excited to partner with IBM Watson to find like-minded collaborators. Running a competition in such a decentralized manner is entirely new.” It is certain that at least some of the teams participating in this competition will focus on healthcare.

AI to Take the Stage at TED in 2020

The IBM Watson AI XPRIZE is a long-term competition. Shortly after its value was first demonstrated on the CBS quiz show *Jeopardy!*, IBM Watson ultimately chose to focus on the field of AI. The competition concluded in 2020, with the $5 million prize pool allocated as follows: $3 million for first place, $1 million for second place, $500,000 for third place, and the remaining $500,000 designated for special achievement awards. The application deadline was December of this year, and the detailed project plan was released in March.

In 2020, three speakers will take the TED stage to deliver presentations and compete for the final award. The presentations will be powered by an artificial intelligence system, with X Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis and IBM Watson Chairman David Kenny serving as judges to determine the winner on the TED stage.

“The level of challenge is entirely up to the developers themselves. The goal of this competition is to highlight the positive aspects of artificial intelligence, rather than its negative impacts,” said Peter Diamandis. “In fact, I personally detest the negative hype surrounding AI. We believe that artificial intelligence is one of the most important inventions in humanity’s efforts to overcome the challenges we face, and we want to showcase this to the world.”