A hackathon in Seattle this past weekend provided a glimpse of how AI systems can effectively work with humans in both personal and professional capacities.
AI Tinkerers hosted its “Humans-in-the-Loop” hackathon, where 80 participants came up with ideas for AI applications that combine humans and machines in tandem.
The event, held at the new Foundations space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, included engineers from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, as well as other tech companies in Seattle and from across the country.
Anthropic and CopilotKit helped support the event.
The top prize went to MetabolixAI, which provides personalized nutrition insights and meal planning. It uses AI to analyze individual dietary needs by reading data from glucose meters and user’s meal images, while also incorporating general preferences. The system then generates tailored nutritional advice and analysis of glucose response.
The runner-up prize went to AI DevRel Project, which scans online forums for discussions related to developer tool product inquiries, and automatically assesses opportunities to engage and craft appropriate responses. The idea is to enhance developer relations efforts by finding relevant discussions, and including human oversight for quality control.
The community pick prize went to LeadScore, which uses AI to score inbound leads, with help from a human assistance to improve how the system assesses potential business based on a company’s parameters.
The winning teams took home nearly $15,000 in prize money.
Another fun project came from Seattle techies Diego Oppenheimer, Kenny Daniel, and Laurel Orr. They built a multiplayer game that challenges players to build factions using one-on-one conversations with AI agents.
Seattle tech veteran Joe Heitzeberg, who founded AI Tinkerers two years ago as a meetup group in Seattle designed for technical builders, called out the fact that the hackathon attracted engineers and companies across the country, including San Francisco-based Anthropic, the OpenAI rival backed by Amazon.
AI Tinkerers is now active in several cities worldwide hosting meetups, hackathons, and other events.