Anduril Launches AI Drone Flying Competition With Cash, Employment Prizes

The Palmer Luckey-founded defense company Anduril has launched a new drone racing competition. The catch? No humans are allowed to enter. Anduril is looking for the fastest and most capable AI pilots for future drone technologies, and it's offering $500,000 in prize money and new career opportunities at Anduril for the engineers and developers who can program the winners, TechCrunch reports.

The idea for a drone racing competition reportedly stemmed from a marketing meeting, where Anduril staffers suggested sponsoring a drone contest in the same way they do Nascar events. However, Luckey believed highlighting human pilots would conflict with the company's mission, which involves promoting autonomous technologies. When his team learned that no one else was running an AI drone racing competition, they decided that Anduril should launch one itself.

All participants will have to fly agile miniature Neros Technology drones. (Anduril's own is reportedly too ...