TED AI HACKATHON RECAP

What a week it has been. A full day of talks on the TED AI stage on Tuesday, followed by a day of panels and workshops that continued the conversations in a new and engaging way. But TED AI actually began last Saturday, when we kicked of the week with an AI for Good Open Source Hackathon.

With 36 teams, 120 participants, and 30 hours, our hackers were off to the races. Using the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals as inspiration for their projects, teams worked through the night to develop and build AI applications to enhance human resilience.

In addition to industry mentors, our hackers got access to GitHub Copilot, the world's most widely adopted AI developer tool. Copilot allowed our teams to code faster, focus on business logic over boilerplate, and do what matters most: building great software. Google MakerSuite also shared its PaLM API, which our teams could use to build their innovative AI applications powered by Google's large language models.

After 30 hours of tireless coding, two rounds of rigorous evaluation, and a brief break where we hosted an AI - Pillars and Pitfalls panel moderated by the San Francisco Chronicle, the moment arrived to announce our winners.

1st Place: VoteWise, an AI-powered voter guide that helps everyone vote their values.

2nd Place: SelfActualize.AI, providing personalized coaching by your heroes.

3rd Place: Beanie the Bunny, a cuddly LLM-powered companion for children ages 5-8.

These three teams earned their moment in the spotlight and got to take center stage at TED AI to a roomful of applause. We look forward to witnessing the continued growth and success of all 120 participants!

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead,

The TED AI Team

p.s. We’ll be sharing more photos, recordings, and news in the coming weeks. Be sure to keep up with our latest developments by following the links below!