Miltech company Anduril will hold the AI Grand Prix drone competition, where the UAVs themselves will compete in the race without the help of operators. Thus, it will be a test not of the hardware, but of the software that allows drones to outrun their competitors. Teams from Russia are not allowed to participate.
Miltech company Anduril will hold the AI Grand Prix drone competition, where the UAVs themselves will compete in the race without the help of operators. Thus, it will be a test not of the hardware, but of the software that allows drones to outrun their competitors. Teams from Russia are not allowed to participate.
The AI Grand Prix prize pool is $500,000, which will be divided between the teams with the highest points. Winners can also get a job at Anduril outside of the standard recruiting process, TechCrunch reports .
According to Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, the idea for the competition came about when someone on the team suggested sponsoring a drone racing tournament. Luckey generally liked the idea, but he had his own perspective.
«Guys, this would be a very unwise move for Anduril. The bottom line, our whole momentum and reason for being is that autonomy has finally advanced to the point where it doesn’t need to be piloted by a human. In fact, we should sponsor races where programmers and engineers demonstrate how well they can make a drone fly on its own,» he explained.
When it turned out that no such competition existed, Anduril decided to hold one themselves. Palmer Luckey noted that in the AI Grand Prix, teams will not fly Anduril drones, but drones created by another defense startup, Neros Technologies. The Anduril drones turned out to be too large to fly on the closed track in Ohio, where the finals will be held.
Anduril also collaborates with one of the famous racing leagues, Drone Champions League.
Lucky hopes to attract at least 50 teams and has already received interest from several universities. If the competition is successful, he plans to expand it to include other types of autonomous vehicles.
«We’re starting with these quadcopter racing drones, which is in line with people’s expectations for this kind of racing. However, in the future, we want to apply AI racing to other platforms as well,» said the Anduril co-founder.
He added that underwater, land, and even space drone races with AI are possible in the future.
The competition is open to all international participants, with the exception of teams from Russia. «The difference with Russia is that it is actively involved in the invasion of Europe. I would like everyone to participate, but we are not the Olympics,» Palmer Luckey explained.
Chinese teams can participate, but if they win, they are not guaranteed a job at Anduril. «If you work for the Chinese military, you will not be allowed to work at Anduril,» the company’s co-founder said.
The competition will take place in three qualifying rounds starting in April, with the final Grand Prix race scheduled for November.
Palmer Luckey previously stated that Anduril weapons helped destroy hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian military equipment, and the company performed part of the «work» in Ukraine at its own expense.
