Prizes & Judging
Every submitted project gets judged. More than $10,000 in cash, compute credits, and software is up for grabs. Here is what the judges look for and which awards they can give.
Prize pool
The total pool is over $10,000, committed by our sponsors. The exact split between categories is published here ahead of opening night. It is made up of:
- Cash prizes for winning teams
- Compute and GPU credits for training and inference
- Tooling subscriptions and product access from our sponsors
Award categories
Category awards call out projects that do one thing especially well. You do not need to apply for them; every submission is considered.
Best Creative Tool
The project that most usefully puts generative AI in the hands of someone making something.
Best Fine-tune
The most impressive custom model, LoRA adapter, or training pipeline built during the weekend.
Most Surprising Output
The project that produced something nobody expected, its own authors included.
People's Choice
Voted on by participants during demo day.
How projects are judged
Judges include working AI researchers, artists, and startup founders. Every project is scored against four weighted criteria:
- Creativity & Originality
- 30%
- Technical Implementation
- 30%
- Visual Quality / User Experience
- 20%
- Potential Impact
- 20%
What you submit
Send us a working demo (a live URL or video), your GitHub repository, and no more than 500 words on what you built and why. A working link is better than a polished video. Submissions close at 11:59 PM AoE on Sunday, October 11, 2026. See the full schedule or the FAQ for details.