We Gave $2M To The AI Startup That Could Help The Most People | MOONSHOTS Live

Summary

Peter Diamandis opens the MOONSHOTS Live event to present the Build with Gemini XPRIZE awards. Addressing the audience, Diamandis argues that the traditional social contract of schooling, college degrees, and conventional employment is broken. He urges individuals to identify problems affecting at least 100,000 people and leverage artificial intelligence and entrepreneurial drive to solve them. In partnership with Google, the competition challenged developers to build a profitable, revenue-generating business within a 90-day window starting from a clean slate.

Diamandis introduces the judging panel, welcoming Palmer Luckey of Anduril, Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, Logan Kilpatrick of Google DeepMind, and Mark Pincus of Zynga to the stage. Before judging the finalists, Diamandis asks each panelist what venture they would launch if they were starting over today with no wealth, network, or capital. Palmer Luckey proposes using oxytocin dosing in couples therapy to reduce divorce rates, citing the safety and non-habit-forming nature of pair-bonding biology.

Cathie Wood suggests founding a zero-employee, AI-powered company focused on biotechnology and drug discovery. She highlights that AI has the potential to reduce drug development costs from 2.4 billion dollars down to 600 to 700 million dollars, while shortening research timelines from 13 years to 8 years or less. Logan Kilpatrick identifies proprietary data aggregation as the main bottleneck for AI progress, advising founders to build businesses around curated, domain-specific datasets. Mark Pincus proposes reimagining social media through AI agents that gamify reducing personal screen time, shifting users away from toxic doomscrolling toward high-signal interactions.

The ceremony moves on to the presentation of the awards and trophies, granting seed capital to the top five projects.

1. 5.DodoPrep. Founded by Naveed Ahmed from India, DodoPrep is an AI-native tutoring platform that turns study materials into personalized learning workflows, earning fifth place and a 100,000 dollar prize.
2. 4.LaunchBridge. Created by Chase Rosen and Leonardo Fall from the United States, LaunchBridge uses AI to take an entrepreneur from concept to a fully registered LLC with an EIN and payments set up in under 72 hours, receiving fourth place and 100,000 dollars.
3. 3.MyFixam. Developed by Jane Chukwuyem Odum and Ayodele Daniel Dada from Nigeria, MyFixam provides a platform matching informal Nigerian artisans with job opportunities and secure payments, taking third place and 100,000 dollars.
4. 2.TICIAN Cierre. Created by José Edgar Peña Ramírez from Mexico, TICIAN Cierre uses AI to automate VAT credit recovery and auditing for Mexican businesses, securing second place and 200,000 dollars.
5. 1.Polyfork. Founded by Lucas Antonio Martinic Birkner from Germany, Polyfork provides a library of code-based 3D assets designed specifically for AI agents to generate, recolor, and manipulate interactive 3D models, earning first place and the 500,000 dollar grand prize.