It’s unlikely that robots will ever replace humans in professional sports, even if they become better tennis players or make 100% of their three-pointers. But there’s something kind of enticing about the AI Grand Prix, a drone racing competition announced Tuesday by defense tech company Anduril.
Contestants won’t need to own drones or even a set of controls to compete. Instead, they’ll submit an algorithm that will be used to pilot a standard model drone built by Neros Technologies.
Dreamed up by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, the contest offers a top prize of $500,000 and a job at the company for the winner (unless the winner is from China, due to national security concerns).
Drone racing hasn’t really gained mass appeal, even with human pilots, so there’s no guarantee the AI Grand Prix will be a hit with spectators during a race in Ohio later this year. But the convergence of AI world models and robotics is going to create more opportunities for contests like this, that invite ambitious computer scientists to bring new innovations into the arena on full display.
At the very least, they’ll help companies like Andruil (or perhaps the US government) identify talent. But they could be genuinely fascinating in contests that include more strategy and planning. Imagine an elaborate game of robot-capture the flag, or even football. And the ability for these models to operate the robots as a “black box” means creators might retain their secret sauce — the same way athletes don’t reveal their preparation for a big game. You can get a hint of this when AI models play computer games in two dimensions, but it will be even more mind-blowing in the physical world, kind of like an Ender’s Game meets ChatGPT.