In an effort to encourage more AI innovation from people around the world regardless of age, Iridescent, a global technology education non-profit, created the AI Family Challenge to bring together thousands of people across the globe as part of a competition to solve local problems. The winning families were announced at the World Championship in Santa Clara, California last week with representatives from multiple countries including Bolivia, Palestine, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.
Each participant went through a rigorous 15-week program that joined together families, schools, communities, and industry mentors to create AI projects that those involved can bring back and use to solve local problems. The projects were split into two divisions based on age, ranging from 8-16 years old, showcasing how AI innovators are not limited by degree, age, or gender.
Vying against over two hundred entrants, the Rana Family from Palestine won the Inspiration award for using image recognition technology to analyze children’s drawing and determine if there is a bullying problem. The Pifive Team from Spain won the Social Impact Award for creating a device that checks if a swimmer is safe and the Mayet Family won the Technology Award for creating an algorithm that tracks a child’s brush time and notifies parents of their oral health habits.
“AI will only realize its potential to solve some of our biggest problems if we can introduce it to more people all over the world,” said Jeff Dean, a Google Senior Fellow and SVP for Google AI, in a press statement. “Organizations like Iridescent are vital to the long-term health of AI and prove that by bringing together families, community groups and industry leaders we can create real, lasting change.”
Google.org contributed an additional $500K to the championship, while the finals were held on Intel’s Santa Clara campus in Santa Clara. Other partners included experts in AI from Google.org, NVIDIA, Intel, and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.
Sign-ups for season two are now open.
