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
TestMu AI (Formerly LambdaTest) Recognized in Independent Research on Autonomous Testing Platforms, Q4 20252.2.2026 18:24:00 CET | Press release
Research cites AI testing, data generation, and accelerated execution TestMu AI (formerly known as LambdaTest), the world’s first full-stack Agentic Quality Engineering platform, today announced its inclusion in The Forrester Wave™: Autonomous Testing Platforms, Q4 2025, an independent research report evaluating vendors in the autonomous testing market. The report identifies TestMu AI as a cloud-based platform for unified test orchestration and execution. It notes the platform's capabilities in cross-browser testing, real device cloud, and AI-driven automation. Specifically, the research cites TestMu AI’s testing of AI systems across dimensions, providing metrics for accuracy, intent recognition, and hallucination detection with configurable thresholds. Additionally, the report recognizes TestMu AI’s AI-powered test data generation, citing its support for Large Language Models (LLMs), multimodal inputs, and compliance-aligned workflows. The report also noted the company's strong commun
Current Chemicals Launches as Independent Specialty Materials Manufacturer, Building on 75-Year GE Legacy with Backing from Momentum Global Ventures2.2.2026 17:04:00 CET | Press release
Today marks the debut of Current Chemicals, Inc. (CCI) as a fully independent U.S.-based specialty materials manufacturer. Backed by strategic investor Momentum Global Ventures, CCI is charting a bold new path as a trusted partner for materials innovation, custom chemistry, and U.S.-based downstream manufacturing of rare earths and critical materials. The partnership between U.S.-based CCI and Netherlands-based Momentum Global Ventures reflects a strengthening transatlantic alliance at a pivotal moment for global supply chains. This partnership underscores a shared commitment to secure, reliable, and innovation-driven materials infrastructure. Originally the chemical division of GE Lighting, the team behind CCI has served as the quiet force behind groundbreaking technologies for more than 75 years, developing processes and manufacturing advanced materials for displays, lighting, energy storage, and more. As an independent company, CCI is poised to expand its impact across industries de
Laserfiche’s Taylor Grosso Honored as 2026 CRN® Channel Chief2.2.2026 16:00:00 CET | Press release
Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management — announced today that CRN® — a brand of The Channel Company — has selected Taylor Grosso, senior director, channel, Americas, as a 2026 CRN® Channel Chief. This annual recognition celebrates IT vendor and distribution executives who are shaping channel strategy and driving innovation and partnership across the industry. Grosso oversees Laserfiche’s Americas channel sales team, including the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, focusing on empowering Laserfiche Solution Providers to stay competitive as the market evolves. As more organizations seek out AI-powered tools to enhance productivity, Grosso prepares partners with the resources they need to quickly learn and sell Laserfiche’s industry-leading AI-powered document management solutions. By working closely with partners on building targeted business plans, Grosso and his team enable faster customer adoption of AI while driving revenue growth. “Over the past year,
Conga Completes Acquisition of PROS B2B Business2.2.2026 15:55:00 CET | Press release
Redefines Commercial Excellence for Enterprises with a Clear Path from Price to Signature Conga, a leader for AI-powered innovation in configure, price, quote (CPQ), contract lifecycle management (CLM), and document automation, today announced it has completed the acquisition of the B2B business of PROS Holdings, Inc (“PROS”) from certain investment funds affiliated with Thoma Bravo, the world’s largest software-focused investment firm. This transaction unites two industry leaders to help enterprises maximize revenue, reduce risk, and improve profitability. By bringing together AI-driven pricing optimization, configuration, quoting, and contracting capabilities, the combined company creates a differentiated enterprise platform that connects the commerce chain and enables end-to-end revenue orchestration from price to signature. The expanded Conga leadership team will continue to be led by CEO Dave Osborne. “To operate as connected, intelligent businesses, enterprises need a commerce ch
Andersen Consulting styrker sit udbud inden for digital transformation gennem samarbejde med iNNOVATEQ2.2.2026 15:38:00 CET | Pressemeddelelse
Andersen Consulting har indgået en samarbejdsaftale med iNNOVATEQ, der er et Muscat-baseret digitalt transformationsfirma, der redefinerer det digitale oliefelt gennem indsigter i realtid, intelligente arbejdsgange, driftsmæssig ekspertise og produktionsoptimering på tværs af olie- og gasværdikæden. iNNOVATEQ blev grundlagt i 2018 og udsprang fra Petroleum Development of Omans (PDO) digitale transformationsprogram og trækker på en stærk operatør-DNA samt praktisk erfaring fra samarbejde med nogle af verdens største nationale og internationale olieselskaber. Virksomheden specialiserer sig i bæredygtig forretningstransformation gennem praktiske, formålstilpassede digitale løsninger leveret via deres Nibras-platform; et system til aktiv- og produktionsstyring. Med et team på mere end 100 specialister og en voksende international kundebase understøtter iNNOVATEQ sine kunder ved at kombinere digitale initiativer, effektivisering af driften og skalering af intellektuel ejendom til pålidelige
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