We Gave Away $2,000,000 To 5 AI Builders | MOONSHOTS Live
Peter DiamandisSalim IsmailDave BlundinAlexander Wissner-GrossCathie Wood
- Peter Diamandis declared the education-to-employment social contract “done” and proposed entrepreneurship as its replacement. Find a meaningful, solvable problem that should not exist, “put on your AI hat” and entrepreneur hat, then build your own business, career, and future.
- The Build with Gemini XPRIZE challenged teams to find a meaningful problem affecting 100,000 people and build a profitable, revenue-generating company from a clean slate in 90 days. Diamandis said the larger mission was proving the model possible so others could replicate it.
- Cathie Wood framed a one-person AI startup as a practical hedge for graduates facing weak entry-level hiring. She advised them to start a company with no employees while continuing interviews. Diamandis supplied the explicit downside—90% of startups fail, 10% succeed—and called the venture a “call option”; he added that if it takes off, founders can tell employers to leave.
- Wood said AI could improve startup success metrics and called healthcare its deepest application. She estimated drug-development costs could fall from $2.4 billion including failures to $600–700 million, while timelines shrink from 13 years to eight or fewer.
- Palmer Luckey proposed dosing oxytocin as part of marriage counseling. He linked the idea to an obsession with natalism and America’s birth rate, and described oxytocin as safe, unregulated, and part of a self-reinforcing bonding loop.
- Logan Kilpatrick argued that data—not compute—is now the binding constraint on AI progress. After “hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars” de-risked computing and infrastructure, he sees opportunities in unique datasets and narrow domain expertise; even leading data companies, he said, are valued around $10 billion.
- Mark Pincus would rebuild social media around AI agents and “gamify how little time you can spend there.” Palmer Luckey qualified the critique: endless scrolling is corrosive, but niche communities can turn deliberate online time into “high-calorie” activity.
- The five finalists attacked education, company formation, informal labor, 3D creation, and Mexican VAT recovery. Dodo Prep placed fifth with $100,000, Launch Bridge fourth, MyFixit third, Tessian Sierra second with $200,000, and Polyform first with $500,000 in “undiluted initial capital.”
1. The new social contract is to build around purpose
Diamandis’s premise: the path from high school to college to a secure job “is done.” He defined passion as something you love to do and purpose as something you love to do that helps other people. The replacement is to find a problem that exists, should not exist, and can be solved.
In the Build with Gemini XPRIZE, with Google as a partner, teams had to address a meaningful problem affecting 100,000 people and create a profitable, revenue-generating company from a clean slate in 90 days. “The mission here is not these specific companies”; it is to teach and inspire replication.
2. AI makes entrepreneurship a career hedge
Wood’s advice to unemployed graduates was pragmatic: start an AI company with no employees while continuing interviews. She cited a six-month average and three-month median unemployment spell, arguing that the venture demonstrates initiative even if it fails.
Diamandis kept the downside explicit—“90% of all startups fail”—and called the venture a “call option.” Wood agreed that AI could change that success profile. If the company takes off, Diamandis added, founders can tell employers to leave.
Wood said healthcare was the deepest application and projected that AI could reduce drug-development costs from $2.4 billion, including failures, to $600–700 million, while cutting the timeline from 13 years to eight or less.
Luckey proposed dosing oxytocin for marriage counseling, motivated by an obsession with natalism and America’s birth rate. He presented pair bonding as well understood and oxytocin as safe, unregulated, and part of a “self-reinforcing loop.” Those were his claims about the biology and regulatory opportunity.
3. Proprietary data becomes the scarce AI asset
Kilpatrick argued that labs know how to reduce the risks of continued AI progress and that enormous investment has de-risked compute, data centers, and related infrastructure. “The real bottleneck for continued progress is data.”
His investable wedge is aggregating unique datasets or applying niche domain expertise to make models competent everywhere. The ecosystem remains early: its best companies are around $10 billion, he said, and “likely to become much, much more valuable very, very soon.”
4. Better social products should optimize for less consumption
Pincus recalled social media beginning as a “magical cocktail party” before becoming toxic and a bad use of “calories.” His redesign would use AI, agents, and game mechanics to minimize time spent rather than maximize engagement.
Luckey’s qualification matters: endless “scrolling to death” differs from deliberately visiting a software-defined-radio community. A later participant said X provides substantial value but estimated that value came from only about 10% of their time on X.
5. Five finalists converted AI into narrow operating businesses
Dodo Prep personalized tutoring; Launch Bridge promised an LLC, website, and payment setup within 72 hours; MyFixit targeted Nigeria’s informal craft economy; Polyform generated customizable 3D assets; Tessian Sierra automated Mexican VAT-credit recovery by preparing, auditing, and submitting returns.
Dodo Prep placed fifth with $100,000, Launch Bridge fourth, MyFixit third, Tessian Sierra second with $200,000, and Polyform first with $500,000. The winning team called the prize “undiluted initial capital,” immediately tempered by the joke that taxes would still dilute it.
Full transcript
1. Introducing the Build with Gemini XPRIZE
We are going to present the Build with Gemini XPRIZE. What is it? Many people are worried about work, and they are concerned about the old social contract: do well in high school, go to college, get a degree, and get a job. This, to quote my dear friend Alexander Wissner-Gross, is done.
Here is the new social contract: find something you care deeply about. That’s your destination. I define passion as something you love to do. I define purpose as something you love to do that helps other people. It’s that simple.
If you don’t know your purpose, your job is to find it. Once you understand that someday you’ll discover a problem that exists, shouldn’t exist, and can be solved, put on your AI hat, put on your entrepreneur hat, and build it. You can take responsibility for your life and create your own business, your own career, and your own future.
This is a challenge we have completed. We reached out to our friends at Google—God bless them all. They have been extraordinary partners and friends for decades. We said, “Okay, let’s do an XPRIZE competition where we challenge teams to find a problem that affects 100,000 people. It has to be something meaningful. Then we’ll give you 90 days, from a clean slate, to build a profitable, revenue-generating company.”
The mission here is not these specific companies. The mission here is to show that it is possible—to teach people and inspire people to do it themselves. I’m going to introduce our judges. Let’s start the video.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Palmer Luckey back to the stage.
2. Meet the Judges
Hey, buddy, you’re back. Peter, I support everyone. You know something about starting companies.
Okay, our next judge is Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of investment firm ARK Invest.
It’s really interesting how artificial intelligence is changing our research and how much more we can do now. We have risk-averse investors, certainly in the institutional world, but less so in the retail world. Bitcoin, in our opinion, will be the most important crypto asset, especially as we move toward genetic AI, where machines will buy from other machines.
Please welcome the legendary Cathie Wood to the stage.
This is Cathie Wood, everyone. Hi, Cathie. Good morning. Cathie just flew in from Portugal last night. Thank you very much, Cathie.
Okay, our next judge is Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio and the Gemini API for Google DeepMind.
From day one, the goal of creating this technology was to use AI to accelerate science and ultimately help humanity. I think we have the best research team in the entire world.
How many of the AI products in the ecosystem are actually personalized to appeal to the people who use them? Hopefully, people will create their first programs. There are so many subtle nuances to getting it right, and the model nailed it.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Logan Kilpatrick.
Logan, thank you very much, and thank you, Gemini, for your support on this.
Okay, our final judge. Founder and CEO Mark Pincus joins us now. He is a serial entrepreneur and technology investor, best known as the founder of Zynga.
We must separate our winning instincts from our losing ideas. My job is to work with great product-development teams on great products. What’s actually better is that 10 out of 10 existing users of this product would say, “Yes.”
“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” I think that, as a culture, we will move from consumer to generative.
Welcome to the stage, the amazing Mark Pincus.
Give it up for Mark Pincus. Hey, buddy.
Thank you, Mark.
So, Logan, you’re in the shoes of our chief judge. You should move on and keep the pace. After our 5 finalists perform, you will go backstage for a judges’ discussion. I’ll come back to show you that we had 20 more winning teams.
Let me pass the word on to you.
I like it. Perfectly.
Peter, we’re starting with questions. Do we still want to start with questions about what we’re going to talk about?
3. If You Had to Start From Zero Today
It’s true. I wanted to warm it up. Thanks for reminding me.
If you were starting from scratch today, what would you do? You just graduated from school, some bet of yours ruined you, and you have to start all over again. There was no network, and there was no wealth. What would you do today?
I would try to end the tragedy of divorce by dosing oxytocin for marriage counseling. We have a good understanding of mammalian pair bonding. Many people want to stay together, and most people who don’t want to stay together should stay together, especially for the sake of their children.
We can see that people think SSRIs are normal, even though they’re not. If they are, then oxytocin dosing could be normal, too.
I’ve heard about that. This is really critical, isn’t it? People seem to drift apart over time.
Oxytocin is safe—that’s for sure. We use it for mothers and babies. It is a bonding hormone. This is the chemical responsible for pair bonding in mammals.
There are things you can do to increase its absorption, and it is very well understood. It’s also completely unregulated, which is great. Unregulated spaces are much easier to make.
You can buy a kilogram of oxytocin at Sigma Aldrich Chemical Supply right now. If you do, maybe you won’t die alone.
Mark, are you involved in this?
Yes. I could have used that 8 years ago.
It’s never too late. Call her.
But I find it absolutely fascinating. Wait, a 50% divorce rate? I just placed an order with Sigma Aldrich Chemical Supply.
I think we need to talk.
I love it. This is pure biology. It’s used for women who don’t bond with their children, and now for women who don’t connect with their husbands. It is also used for children with various neurological problems. Some children with autism who struggle with paranoia.
The coolest thing is that it’s a self-reinforcing loop. We understand this perfectly. Unlike most drugs, it does not create chemical dependence. In fact, it frees you from chemical dependency.
What inspired this idea, by the way?
Just an obsession with natalism and the birth rate in America.
Surprisingly.
Surprisingly.
4. Cathie Wood on AI and Entrepreneurship
Cathie, get over it. You’ll have to repeat the question. The issue is that you are all post-economic. If you had to start from scratch right now, what would you do? What would you create? What field would you go into, or what kind of company would you start?
I work in an industry where the world is our oyster, so I get paid to teach, and I believe that AI is going to make us super-smart. Of course, I would use AI the way we use it now.
I often get asked this question about unemployment: “Wouldn’t that be terrible?” I think we’re going to have an entrepreneurial explosion. I know I’m singing your song, Peter, but I’m just telling these young people because it’s true.
Entry-level positions aren’t getting filled like they used to. People who graduate from school are unemployed, and the average length of unemployment is 6 months. The median is 3 months. What I tell these young people is that it is a blessing in disguise.
You should start your own company with artificial intelligence and no employees, and keep going through interviews. I think you’ll get a job very quickly because you’ll take the initiative in trying to solve a problem in the world. You will use artificial intelligence, and everyone will need to import a lot of talent that works with AI carriers.
Or better yet, your company takes off and you tell them to leave.
That’s what I—
That’s right, but you have to be realistic. Ninety percent of all startups fail. Only 10% succeed. So you are absolutely right that this is a call option.
Do you think this number is changing in the era of AI success metrics?
I think so. I think that will change. Everything—our work, for example, in drug development—will be affected. AI will reduce the number of failures and reduce the cost of discovering and developing a new drug from $2.4 billion, including failures, to $600–700 million. The time will be reduced from 13 years to 8 years or less.
I think healthcare is the deepest application. I would probably advise people who are interested in health and biology to go there, and to go there with AI.
Perfect. Logan, what’s your answer?
5. Where the Biggest AI Opportunities Are
I think there is a huge opportunity. I spend all my time thinking about how we accelerate progress in building better AI models, and I’m sure there are a lot of people in the audience who are thinking about that, too.
The opportunity, as I phrase it, is that we have reduced the risks associated with continuing to advance AI. We know how to do that. I think all the labs know how to do this.
In the last 3 years, we’ve de-risked computing by using hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, even billions of dollars, space data centers, all of that. The last part of this, which is currently the real bottleneck for continued progress, is data.
You’re seeing this massive explosion of the data ecosystem and industry, and it’s still very early days. Even the best companies in this market are valued at around $10 billion and are likely to become much, much more valuable very, very soon.
And then you see the same wide variety of startups and people bringing this really niche, interesting domain expertise to help accelerate that, because models have to be good at everything. So I think there’s a huge opportunity that you can take advantage of, for example, with the YC startups. The percentage of YC startups in the current class that are data-driven is extremely high.
I don’t know what that number is. Aggregate unique data and then sell this package. That’s right.
Mark, I’m still interested to hear what you’re going to say.
6. Reinventing Social Media with AI
At the risk of sounding very obvious, I will still do what you expect me to do. I would reimagine and reinvent our online social experience, use artificial intelligence and agents, and gamify how little time you can spend there, because I feel like it’s so toxic and such a bad use of calories.
That’s so much noise for an alarm. Palmer, do you agree?
I feel like, as one of the first people on social media, it started out as a magical cocktail party, and it became something that I don’t think anyone feels good about. Nobody is proud.
I mean, how much time do you spend on Instagram or whatever? Palmer, you nod your head.
I think, on average, you’re right. I also think I’ve managed to build a pretty good feed, and there are a lot of good online communities for people who do very specific, very niche things that only work because they’re on these major social platforms.
And so I like the idea of keeping people away from the app as much as possible through endless scrolling—scrolling to death. But, as a guy who grew up on phpBB forums and saw many of those communities move to social media, this is a deliberate waste of time.
It’s like, “Oh, I want to see what people are doing with software-defined radios these days.” Luckily, I belong to a group of Southern California software-defined radio enthusiasts, and that’s what’s good about it.
So I think the more we can move from bad things to high-calorie things, the better.
Yes, me too. I will say that X is my social network. I follow you there, and I get a ton of value out of it, but, to be honest, I think that value is probably about 10% of the time I’m on X.
7. Meet the Five Finalists
And the nominees for this year’s Gemini XPRIZE are Dodo Prep, an AI tutor that turns any learning material into personalized learning, adapting to each student’s knowledge gaps and progress; Launch Bridge, which uses artificial intelligence to take an entrepreneur from an idea to a fully formed business with an LLC, website, and payment setup in less than 72 hours; MyFixit, which is building a TaskRabbit for Nigeria’s informal craft economy, helping workers find opportunities and get paid securely; Polyform, which creates 3D assets with artificial intelligence that anyone can change in color and size, remix, and customize; and Tessian Sierra, which is using AI to help Mexican businesses reclaim VAT tax credits by automating the complex process of preparing, auditing, and submitting their returns.
Five teams are using AI to solve real-world problems and create businesses that can make a difference.
Do we have one of those giant checks? We have five checks. This is my job.
8. Fifth and Fourth Place Winners
Are you guys ready? I think we start with fifth place. Yes, we’ll start with fifth. The fifth-place winner is Dodo Prep. Come out, Dodo Prep. Oh, he can’t. Join us online, through the internet.
By the way, if I may for a second, we have an Oscar for optimism here. I like it. Our incredible designer, Joel Cave, created, designed, and manufactured it. He is wonderful. I want one like that.
So, Navid, congratulations. You get a check for $100,000, and this trophy that we will send you. Congratulations, Navid.
Wow. Thank you.
Thank you, Navid. Thank you. Welcome. And we’ll send it to India.
In fourth place, Launch Bridge. Come out, Launch Bridge. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations. We’ll take pictures.
Peter, I’ll leave you there. Come on, Jen. This is your Oscar and a book—your book. Congratulations. And your trophy. Where is the trophy? The trophy is over there. Do you have it?
Enjoy, gentlemen. I hope this investment brings you success. Congratulations, guys.
9. Third and Second Place Winners
Are you ready? In third place, MyFixit. Come on, MyFixit. Congratulations. Come forward. That’s it. Congratulations. Come to the center. Photos right here, guys. Congratulations.
We hope this will help MyFixit dominate. Congratulations.
Before announcing the second- and first-place winners, we want both teams to come up.
Yes, both teams should go out, because it’s obvious as soon as you announce the second and first places.
Yes. Tessian Sierra and Polyform, please join us onstage. Stand up, Tessian, on Zoom. We can take a look. Hopefully he’s still here. Here he is. Edgar.
Either one of you is second or first. I need a drumroll.
The second-place winner is Tessian Sierra. Bring the checks. You’re welcome.
And now you can hire yourself. This is madness. Look at this.
Okay, Tessian Edgar, congratulations. You won $200,000. I don’t know how much that is in pesos, but here it is. Nevertheless, congratulations.
Wow.
And great. Perfect. Come out, friend. First of all, look at this trophy.
Yes, thank you. Wow. This is a nice trophy. Wow.
And $500,000. Congratulations.
10. Polyfork Wins First Place
Congratulations. Undiluted initial capital. This is the best kind.
It is being taxed. It will be diluted.
Wow.
Come out, friend. Come out. Congratulations. It will be diluted by taxes.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. I’m grateful for your friendship, all of you. Let’s support our judges: Palmer, Cathie, Logan, and Mark.
Can I take a quick picture with you for a second?