HI-5 Grand Challenge Registration
Build the Future with Us
The future of intelligence is at a crossroads. The current path, dominated by centralized models, threatens the very diversity of thought that makes us human. PALOMA is our answer: a Humane Intelligence™ built by the people, for the people. But a mission this big cannot be built by a traditional company, beholden to venture capital. It must be built by a global movement, from the ground up.
The HI-5 Grand Challenge is the spark for that movement. This is not a competition; it is an invitation for unification. We have intentionally engineered this challenge as a positive-sum game where everyone wins. We can promise this because every single team retains 100% ownership of their Intellectual Property. You are not working for us; forcesyou are building with us. Whatever you create is yours.
Our AUD$6M prize pool deepens this partnership. It isn't a simple cash payout; it's a long-term profit-sharing agreement. This single mechanic is our most powerful tool: it transforms every participant, their families, and their universities into a global network of passionate evangelists, all with a direct stake in our shared success.
The entire structure is designed to force this collaboration. The categories are the foundational pillars of a single ecosystem—an app is useless without a protocol, and technical work is invisible without a storyteller. We even have a bonus prize specifically to reward the teams who partner most effectively. This is a complete ecosystem, not a simple contest. We provide the full technical specifications to guide you, and I will be providing direct technical support to all teams.
This is your chance to co-create the foundational pillars of a new digital world, to build a solution, and to own it. Explore the missions below. Find your team. Make your mark.
Category 1: The Human Story
(Marketing & Broadcast)
This is the heart of the movement. Forget "marketing plans" and corporate spreadsheets. This category is for the passionate storyteller.
Are you the person who always has their phone out, capturing the moment? Do you know how to build a following, how to create content that makes people feel something? Can you spot the drama in any situation? If so, you are exactly who we're looking for. You don't need to know how to code; you just need to know how to tell a great story.
Your mission is to find a technical team—or multiple teams—and become their documentarian. We’ve designed this to thrive on local partnerships. We want you to embed with a team in your own university or city, allowing you to be there for the 3 AM coding marathons, the creative clashes, the moment of pure despair, and the 'eureka' breakthrough that changes everything.
This is your "reality TV" series. Your job is to capture the highs, the lows, and the very human journey of creation. Your stories are the low-entry barrier that will inspire a groundswell of new teams to join. Your content will build a global audience, getting them so invested in your team's success that when our Kickstarter campaigns launch, they won’t just be backing a product—they'll be backing the people they’ve come to know and root for.
This is your chance to be the voice of a revolution. The AUD$1,000,000 profit-share prize will be awarded based on your real-world impact. We will measure your success by the size of the community you build and the number of people you mobilize to support the cause. In the finale, you will show a 5-minute "Challenge Highlights" reel to a live audience, and they will vote for the story that captured their imagination. This isn't about analytics; it's about authenticity, access, and your ability to tell a story that the world will want to keep watching.
Category 2: The PALOMA Simulation (Web Application)
This is not just a data visualization; this is our window into a new world. Together with our design files, we are asking you to build the "digital womb" of the PALOMA ecosystem—the first place our new form of intelligence will be born.
Your mission is to create a visually stunning, interactive, and data-rich web application that simulates the entire Sprite swarm. This is perhaps the most critical component for launching the movement. It serves a vital dual purpose. First, it will be our most captivating public-facing demonstration, a living, breathing work of art that shows the world what Humane Intelligence looks like. This is the tool that will mesmerize our first Kickstarter backers and prove our vision is real.
But more importantly, this is our most critical research tool. This simulation is the laboratory where we will validate the core science of PALOMA. Your work will answer the fundamental questions: Can we prove that a diverse-rich emergent behavior is possible? Can we demonstrate that this digital ecosystem is positively growing and sustainable? Your creation will be the scientific proof that our new approach is not just a dream, but a reality.
The AUD$1,000,000 profit-share prize will be awarded to the team that masters both art and science. The scoring is strategically weighted to reward this balance. You will be judged on your ability to create an intuitive and powerful data analytics dashboard, one that allows researchers to effortlessly discover scientifically-credible insights into the swarm's health, from the micro-level of a single Sprite to the macro-level of its emergent global culture.
But this goes deeper. We are not just asking you to build a visualizer; we are inviting you to co-create the core science. The judging is designed to reward your ability to validate and even suggest alternatives for the fundamental "behavioural attributes" of the Sprites. You will be challenged to architect the "genesis sprite generation," the system that creates the first digital beings, ensuring they truly represent the diversity of human knowledge and behavior. This is where we prove our commitment to protecting diversity, right from the moment of "birth."
And of course, this must be a human experience. We've set aside points for pushing the boundaries with an immersive VR experience. And like all other teams, your ability to partner with a "Human Story" team is vital. Your final score will include a live Audience Vote, where your marketing partners will present your story, proving to the world that your creation is as compelling and insightful as it is scientifically revolutionary.
Category 4 & 5:
The Gateways to the Swarm (Mobile & Desktop Apps)
These two categories are where our revolution becomes real for millions of people. This is where the human meets the humane. We are challenging the world's best developers to convert PALOMA’s designs into apps that form the primary gateway to the PALOMA ecosystem, with a AUD$1,000,000 profit-share prize for each category. All Category 4 and 5 teams gain access to our design files.
Category 4, the Mobile Application (iOS & Android), is the portal that will live in millions of pockets. Your mission is to craft the home for a user's Sprite—an application so intuitive, elegant, and essential that it becomes their personal portal to a new world of Humane Intelligence.
Category 5, the Desktop Application (Windows, Mac, Linux), is about pure power. Your mission is to bring the full power of PALOMA to the environments with greater computational resources. This is for the advanced users, the creators, and the professionals, enabling more powerful Sprites and more advanced functionalities.
Because these missions are so aligned, their scoring criteria are identical. This structure is a strategic choice. It allows teams to specialize in one platform or ambitiously compete in both, creating a unified user experience across the entire ecosystem.
The scoring is deliberately designed to balance mass-market appeal with deep, future-proof technology. This isn't just about building a "skin"; it's about engineering a true gateway.
A massive 30 points are for the Audience Vote. This is the ultimate test. In the finale, you will present your app, and the audience will be asked one simple question: "Is this the app you want to use every day?"
Another 20 points are for User Experience. We are obsessed with accessibility. Is your interface functional, intuitive, and elegant for a completely non-technical user? This is how we win mass adoption.
From there, the scoring is all about technical and strategic depth. You'll be judged on Multi-Modal Support—how seamlessly your app integrates diverse inputs and outputs like text, voice, images, and video. You must also prove your architecture is future-proof with Multi-Model Support, showing it can efficiently handle a whole range of AI models. This is what allows our ecosystem to evolve, absorbing new breakthroughs from the entire open-source community.
Finally, we force collaboration. You will be scored on your P2P Protocol Implementation. You must either build your own protocol (automatically entering you into Category 3) or—more likely—form a deep partnership with a team from Category 3. You will be judged on how seamlessly you integrate their "nervous system," proving its real-world speed, robustness, and security. This is how we ensure you are not just building an app, but are plugging a living, breathing gateway directly into the decentralized swarm.
Category 6: The Grand Challenge Bonus Prizes
The first five categories are the pillars of the ecosystem. They are the "what" you will build. This final category, with its own AUD$1,000,000 profit-share pool, is about the "how."
This is the soul of the challenge. It’s our way of ensuring that the spirit of our movement—collaboration, innovation, and our humane mission—is rewarded just as highly as the technical product. These five distinct AUD$200,000 prizes are open to every team in every category, and they are the ultimate expression of our core values.
We are offering a prize for the Best Broadcast Human Story, rewarding the team that captures the "reality TV" drama of this journey so compellingly that the world can’t look away. We are also offering a prize for Best Cross-Team Integration as our anti-silo weapon—this is the reward for teams who reject a "zero-sum" mindset and form strategic alliances, proving that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
This is not just about the launch; it's about the future. The prize for Best Open-Source Movement will go to the team that doesn't just deliver code, but delivers a robust plan for fostering a vibrant, long-term community around their solution. And the prize for Best Innovation & Creativity is for the brilliant rebels—the team that finds a more groundbreaking, efficient, or creative way to solve the problem, redefining the very challenge we set them.
Finally, and most importantly, we have a prize for the Most Diverse Team. This is our unbreakable commitment. Our entire mission is to fight AI's flattening monoculture and preserve human diversity. This prize proves that we believe building a technology for all of humanity is only possible with a team that reflects all of humanity—a team with a true diversity of skills, cultural backgrounds, and personal identities.
The "Drama Engine": This Is Not Your Average Judging Panel
A challenge this ambitious deserves a finale to match. We’re not interested in a dry, academic review. We have engineered the entire judging process to be a crucible of human drama, strategy, and suspense. This is where the technical community becomes the star of a "reality TV" finale, and it all culminates in a high-stakes moment we call "The Merger Twist".
Here’s how it works. After the submission deadline for a category, our judges will select the top three finalist teams. But we don't just send them a "congratulations" email. We ask the three teams to secretly negotiate with each other to answer a single question: “Consolidate or Separate?”
For the brief, intense period of the following 8 days between the shortlist announcement and the live finalist showcase, these three teams are faced with a strategic choice that will define their entire journey.
1. They can choose to "CONSOLIDATE": The three rival teams can decide to merge. They can combine their talents, their code, and their solutions into a single "super-team." If they make this choice, they automatically win their category, but they must share the diluted prize. It's the safe bet—the ultimate act of collaboration.
2. They can choose to "SEPARATE": They can reject the merger and decide to compete. They can "go for broke," trusting that their solution is the best. This is the path of high ambition, where they risk walking away with nothing for the chance to win the entire AUD$1,000,000 prize for themselves.
The decision must be kept a total secret. The judges, the audience, and the other teams will be left completely in the dark.
The reveal happens live on stage at the finalist showcase. In front of the global audience, we will ask the finalists to reveal their choice. Will they stand together as partners, or will they face off as rivals?
This isn't a gimmick. This is the ultimate test of our core philosophy. It's a pressure-cooker environment that forces every finalist to confront the central question of the challenge: What is more powerful, individual ambition or collective success? This is where trust, strategy, and raw human nature collide, creating a moment of genuine, unscripted suspense.
Life After the Challenge: The "Everyone Wins" Payoff
So, what happens when the confetti settles and the winners are announced?
In any other competition, this is where the story ends. The "losers" go home empty-handed, their work abandoned. This is the zero-sum game we refuse to play. Our challenge is built on a fundamentally different, non-negotiable principle: Everyone Wins.
This isn't a hollow marketing slogan. It is an engineering fact, built into the very DNA of the challenge. Every single team—winner or not—retains 100% ownership of their Intellectual Property. The work you do is yours. You don't just walk away with "experience"; you walk away with a tangible, commercial-grade asset.
We achieve this through a brilliant piece of strategic design: the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" license. This is the key to our entire symbiotic partnership. The "NonCommercial" clause is the masterstroke. It doesn't mean you can't make money. It simply means that to commercialize your app within the PALOMA ecosystem, you partner with us. This one simple rule changes everything. It creates a powerful alliance, aligning every developer with our core mission. It stops a giant corporation from simply stealing the community's work, and it gives you a direct path to your own revenue stream.
This is how we create a vibrant, diverse marketplace. Instead of one "official" app, we could have dozens, each offering a unique interface and experience, all plugging into the same decentralized swarm.
But our commitment to this movement goes even deeper. Our commitment to excellence is just as ruthless as our commitment to collaboration. We are not building a science fair project; we are building the future of intelligence.
Imagine this: a team wins. They’ve survived the 'Merger Twist.' They're on stage, celebrating. But the judges declare their solution "substandard"—it’s not yet robust enough for the core ecosystem.
This isn't a disqualification. It’s a new starting pistol.
This is where the real drama begins. The judges won't just send them away. They will publish a "Challenge Solution Change List"—a public, detailed roadmap revealing exactly what's needed to meet our standard of excellence.
And here is the masterstroke: that list is for everyone.
For every team that didn't make the shortlist, for every developer who felt they were this close, this is your second chance. This is your Race for Redemption. You now have the exact checklist the judges want. You have the public deadline set by the winning team. But you also have a ticking clock you can't see.
The moment the 'substandard' winning team resubmits their improved solution, the window slams shut for everyone else.
This creates an incredible, high-stakes race against time. If you're the winning team, do you rush a sloppy fix just to be first and lock in your prize? Or do you take your time to perfect it, knowing that every day you wait is another day for an ambitious underdog team to steal your crown?
The judges have the full, discretionary right to choose a new winner from any resubmission that beats that invisible clock. This is our ultimate guarantee of true meritocracy. It ensures that only the absolute best solution—not just the best presented one—becomes part of the PALOMA core.
This is the master plan. This is how we plant the seeds for a self-sustaining, open-source movement that will last for decades. This open architecture allows the ecosystem to constantly evolve, absorbing new, more powerful AI models from the global community.
This is how we win. We don't just build a product in eight months; we launch a movement that will innovate faster, adapt quicker, and stay more humane than any closed, centralized organization ever could.
The Battle Plan: A Timeline for a Movement
This is not a schedule. It is a strategically phased, 11-month "drumbeat" designed to build a tidal wave of momentum. Every date, every deadline, and every launch has been engineered to force collaboration, create proof, and grow this challenge from a simple idea into an unstoppable global movement.
This is our roadmap. Here is how we win.
We start by opening registration for Category 1 (Marketing) on October 22nd 2025. Then, one week later, Category 2 (Simulation). Then Category 3 (Protocol), and so on. This is a five-week media blitz. It gives every discipline its own spotlight and creates a continuous stream of news, building a "call to arms" that grows louder every single week.
Next, we engineered the Strategic Stagger. The deadlines are not random; they are a masterclass in forced collaboration.
The Simulation (Category 2) is due first, in February 2026. This is intentional. It’s our "digital womb," the first tangible, visual proof-of-life we can show the world.
The App (Categories 4 & 5) teams are next, with deadlines in April and May. This is the first piece of genius. The App teams get to watch the Simulation final. They can see the winning solution, study its architecture, and then design their apps to plug directly into a proven, community-vetted system.
But the masterstroke is the Protocol (Category 3) deadline in late June. This forces the single most important collaboration. The App teams must integrate a P2P protocol. They face a critical choice: build their own, or partner with a specialist Category 3 team? Since the specialist teams have months longer to perfect their solution, they will almost certainly build a more robust and decentralized protocol. This strategic design forces the App teams to seek out and forge deep alliances with the protocol architects.
Finally, the Marketing (Category 1) teams are last. They need the entire 10-month saga—from the first registration to the final deadline—as the raw material for their human story.
This all feeds our "Kickstarter Heartbeat"—the fuel for the entire movement. The Kickstarter campaigns are not at the end; they are perfectly timed to happen during the challenge.
Our first campaign launches just before the Simulation final, fueled by the excitement and anticipation of seeing the first pillar built.
The second campaign launches just after the Simulation winner is announced. We now return to the public not with a promise, but with proof. We can say, "The first piece is built. Here is the winning team. Now, help us fund the apps."
The final campaign launches after the App winners are crowned, using the tangible proof of both a winning Simulation and a winning App. Each campaign's success is built on the validated, community-built reality of the last one.
This is the plan. It's a timeline that turns anticipation into proof, and proof into a global movement. Find your place on this timeline. The first registrations open in days.
Join us.
And now: Back over to YOU!
We wish you lots of fun, success and just the right amount of luck!
And 'may the force be with you'...
