Devin Krotman, Director of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE
It's been nearly 14 years since XPRIZE disrupted the space aviation landscape by awarding the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE. The winning technology from this competition kick-started today’s multi-billion-dollar commercial space industry. Not only was this a landmark moment for commercial space exploration, but this first XPRIZE established a proof point for how large crowd-sourced competitions can push technological boundaries. Flash forward to today and XPRIZE continues to pursue moonshots across a wide array of domains — everything from education and renewable energy to women’s safety and health.
As we move closer to the 2020s, XPRIZE knows that the role of artificial intelligence (including
the fields of machine learning and deep learning) and robotics will play an integral role in the
future of humanity. This is why over the last two years we’ve launched the IBM Watson AI
XPRIZE and the ANA Avatar XPRIZE to focus on innovative and deep technology. Looking to a
future where these technologies are effectively incorporated into our daily lives, we see this as
the unique opportunity to demonstrate how innovative technologies can be used to not only
supplement humanity, but also to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
As a result of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE mission and the ecosystem that XPRIZE has
cultivated, the “AI for Good” movement and dialogue has grown and strengthened. Over the last
two years, XPRIZE has partnered with the United Nations to co-host the annual AI for Good
Global Summit — a global platform used to identify practical AI applications to improve life on
our planet. From using AI to predict crop disease to deep learning to treat depression, our
competitors in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE are already working on solutions to some of the
world’s grandest challenges. With the launch of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE earlier this year, we
are encouraging teams to transport a human’s sense, actions, and presence to a remote
location — which will ultimately lead to a more connected world. The common thread among
these prizes is that human and machine collaboration will lead to a transformative world for all.
XPRIZE has always believed that if you can harness the intelligence of the crowd and combine
that with innovative technologies, you can solve the world’s toughest challenges. This is why we
are excited to be a partner of the World Summit AI next week. We look forward to connecting
with the leaders, forward-thinkers, and entrepreneurs in this space to help us make the
impossible possible.