As a child growing up in the 1960s, the world of Peter Diamandis he changed when he started watching Star Trek. The sci-fi utopian vision inspired him to launch companies in health, space and education and create prestigious competitions through his XPrize Foundation. Today, he believes that pop culture has turned too far in the other direction. However, these days, the media’s portrayal of the power of technology seems very dim. “All the movies we’ve seen in Hollywood in the last few decades, since Terminator to Ex Machina to Black Mirrorthey all paint dystopian pictures of the future,” Diamandis told the Observer: “If that’s people’s vision of the future, why would you want to live there?”
That concern led to the Future Vision XPrize, a new competition that will award up to $3.5 million to filmmakers who envision a hopeful, technology-enabled future. At least one winning entry will be developed into a feature film that Diamandis hopes can serve as a modern Star Trek to a younger audience. “My hope is to inspire today’s youth,” he said.
The prize is the latest initiative from the XPrize Foundation, which Diamandis founded in 1996 with a $10 million space flight competition. Since then, the organization has run more than 30 challenges and awarded $519 million in climate, health, education and food security achievement awards. XPrize’s broad mandate matches Diamandis’ eclectic CV: he holds a doctorate from Harvard and has founded more than 25 companies, including longevity venture Foundation Life, biotech company Vaxxinity and venture fund BOLD Capital.
Diamandis’ new idea came after graduation to Rod Roddenberry, friend and son of Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry, who agreed to sponsor the competition. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood also signed on. “Every day at ARK, we look five years out,” Wood said on the X blog. “This competition asks creators to do the same—and show us the best results of disruptive innovation enabled by technology!”
Presented in partnership with Google and the 100 Zeros program from Range Media Partners, the contest also counts crypto mogul Jed McCaleb and Andreessen Horowitz founder Ben Horowitz among its sponsors. The prize pool, currently less than $4 million, is expected to grow as more fans join in, Diamandis said, adding that enough funding could support two feature films instead of one.
Entrants must submit a three-minute trailer. Submissions opened on March 9 and closed on Aug. 15, with the winner announced in September. The top entrants will receive $2.5 million in production funding and $100,000 in cash, while four runners-up will receive $100,000 each. Filmmakers are encouraged to use AI in their work in any way they choose—without writing or producing their scripts. “This is meant to have a human spirit and purpose in it,” said Diamandis.
So far, the contest has attracted about 1,000 applicants, a number Diamandis expects to grow to 5,000 or 10,000. All trailers will be posted on YouTube, where he hopes to “flourish” the platform with “fantastic future ideas” set on Earth from spaceships to robotic societies to an anti-aging civilization.
He argues that this kind of optimism is essential in guiding public attitudes toward AI away from fear and regression. “I don’t think there is any question at the moment that there is a lot of fear growing out there,” he said. “That fear will lead to social conflict at a significant level.”
Beyond the inspiring techno-utopian stories, Diamandis is already thinking about future XPrizes, including competitions that use AI to enable communication across species and measure, and then increase, human happiness. Asked to name his favorite XPrize in the foundation’s 32-year history, he said, “The next one.”
