CA-XPRIZE
23.6.2021 19:32:08 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
XPRIZE , the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, and IBM Watson , IBM’s AI technology for business, today announced the Grand Prize Winner in the $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Challenge . First launched in 2016, the five-year global competition looked to accelerate adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and spark creative, innovative and audacious demonstrations of the technology that are truly scalable to solve societal grand challenges.
Winning first place honors is Zzapp Malaria , in second place is Aifred Health , followed by Marinus Analytics . These finalists were selected out of a pool of 10 semifinalists following presentations of their solutions to a panel of judges during an event held at TED headquarters in New York City last year. A $3 million grand prize, $1 million second place prize, and $500k third place prize will be awarded to the teams. In total, over 150 teams throughout the world joined the competition.
"After five years of hard work and dedication, XPRIZE is thrilled to announce Zzapp Malaria as the grand prize winner of IBM Watson AI XPRIZE,” said Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE. “Zzapp Malaria, Aifred Health and Marinus Analytics are on the forefront of AI advancement, and we are looking forward to seeing firsthand the positive impact they will have on our future.”
"Each of the three finalists of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE showcase what's possible when the power of AI is used to address some of the world’s toughest challenges,” said Daniel Hernandez, General Manager, IBM Data and AI. “It’s inspiring to witness how the AI technologies we developed at IBM help these organizations realize and scale their good tech solutions to drive positive societal change.”
Based out of Tel Aviv, Israel, Zzapp Malaria is committed to malaria elimination. The team’s AI technology is geared towards tackling the main challenges faced by malaria elimination campaigns by creating custom models, built with tools like IBM Watson Studio for Cloud Pak for Data, to predict the number of small water bodies caused by weather, enabling it to optimize the timing for launching larviciding operations.
- Marinus Analytics (based out of Pittsburgh, PA): A woman-owned company founded in 2014 out of Carnegie Mellon Robotics that is driven by a single social mission: To fight human trafficking. Their solution, Traffic Jam, is a suite of analytics tools that saves hours and sometimes days of investigative time to find traffickers and recover victims by quickly turning big data into actionable intelligence. Marinus Analytics has used IBM Watson Discovery and IBM Watson Assistant to extend their Traffic Jam application, aiding investigation into financial fraud and the illicit flow of proceeds to international crime groups.
- Aifred Health (based out of Montreal, Canada): A digital health company focused on clinical decision support in mental health, starting with depression. The team’s solution uses AI to learn from thousands of patients to help tailor treatment, reducing the time it takes for a patient to reach remission. IBM Watson Health is providing Aifred Health with millions of records of observational depression data to improve their ML models.
To determine the winner, XPRIZE AI convened a global jury of representatives from around the world. The jury evaluated each team based on their performance in the following four dimensions: achieved technical impact, evidenced real-world impact, scalability of real-world impact, and ethics and safety.
The winning teams were announced today in partnership with WIRED during the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE’s AI For Good fireside chat featuring Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, and Seth Dobrin, IBM’s Chief AI Officer. The two discussed the challenge and the importance of AI for the future of humanity. As part of their partnership with WIRED, XPRIZE opened up a public vote for the Most Inspiring Team, and Zzapp Malaria was selected as the winner. You can watch the full fireside chat and view additional content via WIRED’s content hub linked here.
About XPRIZE
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, $15M XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE and $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling. For more information, visit xprize.org.
About IBM Watson
Watson is IBM’s AI technology for business, helping organizations to better predict and shape future outcomes, automate complex processes, and optimize employees’ time. Watson has evolved from an IBM Research project, to experimentation, to a scaled, open set of products that run anywhere. With more than 40,000 client engagements, Watson is being applied by leading global brands across a variety of industries to transform how people work. To learn more, visit: https://www.ibm.com/watson .
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210623005848/en/
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
SES and Air Astana Introduce Multi-orbit Inflight Connectivity on A321LR Fleet30.10.2026 18:35:00 CET | Press release
First aircraft is now delivering a new generation of onboard Wi-Fi experiences for business and leisure travelers SES was selected by Air Astana, the award-winning flag carrier of Kazakhstan, to introduce next-generation inflight connectivity services across its Airbus A321LR fleet. The first connected aircraft entered commercial service on 29 October 2026. Fleet-wide deployment will continue across the remaining A321LR fleet. Equipped with SES’s new electronically steered array (ESA) antenna, the aircraft delivers reliable connectivity over the SES multi-orbit network. SES will provide a fully managed inflight connectivity service across the fleet, enabling Air Astana passengers to enjoy a seamless online experience throughout their journey. “Airlines are increasingly looking for connectivity solutions that deliver a seamless passenger experience while providing the flexibility to evolve with changing customer expectations,” said Blane Boynton, Senior Vice President, Aviation at SES.
CIRCOR to Expand Industrial Portfolio with Acquisition of Green Silence Group S.p.A.30.10.2026 17:06:00 CET | Press release
Acquisition adds complementary pump, electric motor and control technologies to strengthen CIRCOR's industrial solutions portfolio CIRCOR, a KKR portfolio company and global manufacturer of flow control products for industrial and naval markets, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Green Silence Group S.p.A., an Italian provider of hydraulic pumps, electric motors and advanced engineering solutions. The acquisition will bring together the complementary capabilities of Settima, Motive and Spin expanding CIRCOR’s Industrial portfolio with three-screw and ultra-low-noise hydraulic pumps, Motive electric motors, high-efficiency rare-earth-free motor technologies, power electronics and advanced engineering capabilities. Together, these technologies will broaden CIRCOR’s ability to deliver integrated solutions that improve system efficiency, reduce energy consumption and critical raw materials dependency, and address evolving customer needs across industrial a
QuectelSues Telit, Alleging False Statements, Cybersquatting and Unfair Competition30.10.2026 16:41:00 CET | Press release
Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global end-to-end IoT solutions provider, today announced that it has filed legal action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Telit IoT Solutions Inc. The lawsuit seeks to bring an end to Telit’s campaign of false and misleading claims about Quectel and its products. Quectel alleges that, rather than competing on the strength of its products and technology, Telit engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine Quectel’s reputation by exploiting geopolitical concerns surrounding Chinese technology companies. According to the complaint, Telit funded, promoted, and amplified false and misleading claims about Quectel’s products while positioning itself to customers as a safer “Western” alternative. The lawsuit further alleges that Telit engaged in cybersquatting involving Quectel’s U.S. domain name to advance its campaign. Quectel maintains that these alleged actions have caused substantial harm to its sales, customer
TestMu AI Launches Kane CLI Exploration, an AI Agent That Maps an Entire Web App From a Single URL and Turns It Into Tests30.10.2026 15:00:00 CET | Press release
The exploration agent walks every page and flow of a web app on its own, flags UX, security and accessibility issues, and builds the map Kane CLI uses to write, run and ship tests to CI, even when no requirements exist TestMu AI, the Full Stack Agentic AI Quality Engineering platform, announced Kane CLI Exploration, an autonomous agent that learns a web application before anyone writes a test. Given a single URL, it walks the entire app on its own, flags problems along the way and gives Kane CLI the context it needs to generate and run tests, even when no requirements, user stories or acceptance criteria exist. Every test plan starts from something written down, and many apps never had it. Legacy products lose their specs when the people who wrote them move on, and apps a coding agent built in a week often have no record of intended behavior beyond the prompt history. With nothing to test against, a testing agent ends up grading the app against itself. Starting from the URL a developer
The Estée Lauder Companies and Microsoft Announce a New Strategic Partnership to Power Enterprise Efficiency and Consumer-Centric Growth30.10.2026 14:22:00 CET | Press release
The new collaboration will strengthen the company’s cloud, data, and AI capabilities to accelerate innovation and enhance productivity The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) today announced a new strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. to advance its cloud and data foundation and support the responsible adoption of AI-enabled capabilities across the enterprise. The collaboration will help connect data and intelligent tools to support faster innovation, more efficient operations, and more relevant consumer experiences. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261030616823/en/ This new partnership is a critical part of The Estée Lauder Companies’ One Operating Ecosystem, which brings together shared platforms, connected data, and best-in-class partners to enable consistent, scalable, and effective execution across the enterprise. A key initiative of this expanded partnership is harnessing the Microsoft platform to
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom