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AI Sci-Fi

Foundation Honoring 'Star Trek' Creator Offers $1M Prize for AI Startup Benefiting Humanity (yahoo.com) 37

Posted by EditorDavid from the boldly-going dept.
The Roddenberry Foundation — named for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry — "announced Tuesday that this year's biennial award would focus on artificial intelligence that benefits humanity," reports the Los Angeles Times: Lior Ipp, chief executive of the foundation, told The Times there's a growing recognition that AI is becoming more ubiquitous and will affect all aspects of our lives. "We are trying to ... catalyze folks to think about what AI looks like if it's used for good," Ipp said, "and what it means to use AI responsibly, ethically and toward solving some of the thorny global challenges that exist in the world...."

Ipp said the foundation shares the broad concern about AI and sees the award as a means to potentially contribute to creating those guardrails... Inspiration for the theme was also borne out of the applications the foundation received last time around. Ipp said the prize, which is "issue-agnostic" but focused on early-stage tech, produced compelling uses of AI and machine learning in agriculture, healthcare, biotech and education. "So," he said, "we sort of decided to double down this year on specifically AI and machine learning...."

Though the foundation isn't prioritizing a particular issue, the application states that it is looking for ideas that have the potential to push the needle on one or more of the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals, which include eliminating poverty and hunger as well as boosting climate action and protecting life on land and underwater.
The Foundation's most recent winner was Sweden-based Elypta, according to the article, "which Ipp said is using liquid biopsies, such as a blood test, to detect cancer early."

"We believe that building a better future requires a spirit of curiosity, a willingness to push boundaries, and the courage to think big," said Rod Roddenberry, co-founder of the Roddenberry Foundation. "The Prize will provide a significant boost to AI pioneers leading these efforts." According to the Foundation's announcement, the Prize "embodies the Roddenberry philosophy's promise of a future in which technology and human ingenuity enable everyone — regardless of background — to thrive."

"By empowering entrepreneurs to dream bigger and innovate valiantly, the Roddenberry Prize seeks to catalyze the development of AI solutions that promote abundance and well-being for all."

Foundation Honoring 'Star Trek' Creator Offers $1M Prize for AI Startup Benefiting Humanity More | Reply

Foundation Honoring 'Star Trek' Creator Offers $1M Prize for AI Startup Benefiting Humanity

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  • ...within any of our lifetimes.

    • I think it'll get awarded, but it's obviously a symbolic award more than anything else. A million dollars is chump change compared to the kind of payouts these AI companies are looking for.

      • It's also chump change compared to the value of stock options a lot of individual workers can earn at those companies.

        • It's about the nerd cred though, can't put a price on saying "I won the Roddenberry Award". The ladies love it!

          • Nice FP branch, though I think the OP could have filled in the blanks about why he thought not. I agree with the responses to the effect that it's a small bit of candy that will be given to someone for something while the real prizes are much larger. However as soon as "stock options" and market cap enter the picture, I think we're back into the territory of imaginary numbers.

            However my primary reactions are much more personal, per my modified Subject. I remember Star Trek (TOS only) as a major contributor

            • However as soon as "stock options" and market cap enter the picture, I think we're back into the territory of imaginary numbers.

              It's not an either/or situation, the people most capable of doing this work are probably well employed and already working in the field for a commerical company. The idea of inventing something for the purpose of benefitting humanity should in fact be a profitable venture outside honorary prizes.

              I don't know how old you are but for myself it was absolutely TNG that was on during my formative years so that was the one most important to me and they tackled the whole AI things across the board with Data, Lore

  • Interesting timing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday June 23, 2024 @12:50PM (#64571511)

    Just so everyone is aware [imgur.com].

  • For all? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday June 23, 2024 @12:55PM (#64571521) Homepage Journal

    "By empowering entrepreneurs to dream bigger and innovate valiantly, the Roddenberry Prize seeks to catalyze the development of AI solutions that promote abundance and well-being for all."

    AI is based on increasing resource use at a time when increased resource use is threatening our societies and indeed our lives (say goodbye to food security, never mind any of the other effects of AGW.) I love technology, but we really need to figure out how to not let our ambitions exceed our ability to execute them sustainably before we wildly increase our need for energy.

    • Yes, it appears it is for all - that's why the prize is a pittance.

      If it were for a small group of shareholders, the prize would be on par with what everyone at OpenAI, including the face, are getting, which is at least in the billions.

    • "By empowering entrepreneurs to dream bigger and innovate valiantly, the Roddenberry Prize seeks to catalyze the development of AI solutions that promote abundance and well-being for all."

      Can we sue the "Roddenberry Prize" org when they encourage developers to move too fast, take shortcuts, and build dangerous AIs?

      You'd think Star Trek fans would consider this unintended consequence given TOS:"The Ultimate Computer, TNG "Lor", etc.

      • DAYSTROM: Well, you see, the multitronic units one through four were not entirely successful. This one is. M-5 is ready to take control of the ship.

  • Tech companies have only one goal ... to use AI to disrupt as much as they can to make as much money as they can. "For the good of" is not even in their vocabulary. Until people like this cease to exist (looking at you Zuck, Bezos, Pichai, Nadella, etc..) "For the good of" is a long, long, way off, like the Star Trek universe itself.

    • Re:Good luck with that (Score:4, Interesting)

      by crow ( 16139 ) on Sunday June 23, 2024 @01:15PM (#64571569) Homepage Journal

      It can be both.

      Self-driving cars have the potential to save many lives. Robots can free us from menial labor (but that may require some uncomfortable shifting of how society functions). As cited in the article, AI can produce huge medical advances.

      An emergency holographic doctor may not be as good as the real thing, but if it provides basic medical services for the millions who currently have no medical service at all, that's huge.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TheBAFH ( 68624 )

        Any benefits must be important enough to offset the huge damage of the extreme resource consumption. Are the services of an emergency holographic doctor enough to offset the environmental damage caused by the energy consumption of the computing and other systems needed to sustain it?

        • We definitely need to avoid baking the planet, which could happen from excessive energy consumption even if we had ideal emissions policies. So the resources being sucked into AI and crypto schemes is a major concern. Maybe capping those companies' access to market-rate power with escalating surcharges would drive them to innovate more efficient methods.

          • Cryptocurrencies tend to use proof-of-work blockchains which are an anti-efficient technology, so there's no way to reduce the energy usage of those other than to switch to proof-of-stake which turns "the rich get richer" into an inherent feature of the currency itself. Understandably there isn't a lot of enthusiasm around that. So proof-of-work cryptocurrencies will consume whatever energy miners can afford, efficiency only affects how many dogecoins come out. Miners are already heavily incentivized to max

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by crow ( 16139 )

          Yes, the services are certainly worth the energy consumption.

          The key factor here is that the energy to run an AI model is not significantly more than running any other computer program, though you do need newer computer hardware. The huge energy consumption problem is in training the AI models. In some cases, this is an ongoing process, as you need to keep incorporating new data to improve the model, but in other cases, you can stop and say what you have is good enough.

          And it's not clear that the "extreme

          • Yes, the services are certainly worth the energy consumption.

            And it's not clear that the "extreme resource consumption" needs to be extreme over the long term even for training.

            How can you say it is certain when its not's not clear what the costs going to be? Personally I don't think it's going to stop, we always going to try to make these models better. Until the situation forces us not to.

            It is not at all certain https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com] I do note the use of the word could, but once again not at all certain. Also I got argument or even rough calculation of what these services are "worth".

  • If AI startups can't compete with other kinds of startups enough to win a prize open to other industries, how could one even say they deserve a prize at all?

    • In a profit-centred world, environmental responsibility, morals, ethics, and common decency are likely to be left at the post. There's more money to be made from development of startups intended to externalize the costs of maximizing profits. That usually means shafting humanity rather than benefiting it. This simply addresses that imbalance a little.

      • The notional profits swirling around their heads are measured in billions if not trillions, so no, a $1M prize would not even get them out of bed in the morning let alone change their strategies.

        Think of it this way: Say a company makes one billion dollars, which is quite small compared to the perceived potential. One million is one thousandth of that. Now say that your income as an individual is $50,000 per year, so a thousandth of that is $50. If someone offered you a $50 cash prize to completely re

        • I'm not sure you completely grasp economics. If a million dollars was too small to bother with, why do you think billionaires are willing to pervert the US government to save a few hundred grand?

          • If a million dollars was too small to bother with, why do you think billionaires are willing to pervert the US government to save a few hundred grand?

            They do that because it's not the money they want, it's an expression of power to steal pennies from others. That kind of sadism isn't satisfied by winning a prize for public service. In fact, that sort of person would probably be offended by winning such a prize; offended by the idea that others had asserted independent will in regards to them and "condesc

  • Gene's actual vision of the future was one where he monetized the hell out of Star Trek, and pandered to whatever worked with the audience.

    He wasn't very good at it, but when these attempts failed he was pretty good at spreading explanations that helped build the Star Trek myth.

  • Didn't most of the AIs in the various Star Trek series want or try to destroy some/every one at some point? I mean the Daystrom Institute in Lower Decks has a computer prison filled with evil AIs.

    A Who's Who Guide to Star Trek's Megalomaniacal AI [startrek.com]

  • How about a prize outlining how to move economically toward a 'Star Trek' post-scarcity future? There is an original series episode where they pick up an old earth 1970's business man who blathers on about profits to be made while Kirk tries to get on with the mission listening with a look of WTF annoyance.
  • can I have the prize now?

  • His work with Neuro-sama [twitch.tv] is genuinely impressive, and he actually delivers something of value.

  • We want a Rodenberry inspired AI but will end up getting a Daystrum M5 AI.

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