Winner of Anduril's drone-racing contest will be offered a job
What's the story
Leading defense tech company Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, has launched a unique recruiting event called the AI Grand Prix. The competition is not your usual drone-flying contest. Instead of humans flying the drones, they must be programmed to fly themselves autonomously. Participants will be evaluated on their software-writing skills that enable these drones to outperform their rivals.
Rewards
AI Grand Prix offers substantial prizes
The AI Grand Prix comes with a prize pool of $500,000 for the top-scoring teams. It also offers successful participants an opportunity to secure jobs at Anduril and bypass the company's usual recruiting process. The idea for this unique event was born during a meeting about recruitment strategy, where someone suggested sponsoring a drone-racing tournament.
Collaborations
Partnership with Neros Technologies and Drone Champions League
Interestingly, the teams participating in the AI Grand Prix will not be flying Anduril's drones. Instead, they will use those manufactured by another defense tech start-up, Neros Technologies. This is because Anduril's drones are too big for the confined course where finals will take place in Ohio. The company has also partnered with an established racing league, the Drone Champions League, to host this event.
Opportunity
A platform for aspiring software developers
Luckey, who describes himself as more of a hardware guy than a software programmer, is looking forward to the event. He hopes to attract at least 50 teams and has already received interest from several universities. The contest will be held in three qualifying rounds starting in April, with the final Grand Prix race taking place in November.
Expansion plans
A stepping stone to future autonomous vehicle races
If the AI Grand Prix proves successful, Luckey hopes to expand it into races with other types of autonomous vehicles. He said, "We are starting with these quadcopter racing drones, which is what people expect from drone racing. However, we want to be, in the future, applying AI racing to other platforms as well."