As a child growing up in the 1960s, Peter Diamandisthe world of changed when he began to look Star Trek. The sci-fi show’s utopian vision inspired him to launch companies in health, space and education and create ambitious competitions through his XPrize Foundation. Today, he believes pop culture has moved too far in the other direction. These days, however, media portrayals of the technology’s potential are decidedly more bleak. “All the movies we’ve seen from Hollywood over the last two decades, from Terminator THE Former Car THE Black mirrorthey’re all dystopian paintings 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 depict optimistic, technologically enabled futures. At least one winning film will be developed into a feature film that Diamandis hopes can serve as a modern film. Star Trek for a younger audience. “My hope is to really create inspiration for today’s youth,” he said.
The prize is the latest initiative from the XPrize Foundation, which Diamandis launched in 1996 with a $10 million competition for commercial spaceflight. Since then, the organization has run more than 30 challenges and awarded $519 million in prize funding for advances in climate, health, education and food security. The XPrize’s broad mandate reflects Diamandis’ eclectic resume: he has a medical degree from Harvard and has founded more than 25 companies, including longevity venture Foundation Life, biotech firm Vaxxinity and venture fund BOLD Capital.
Diamandis’ newest idea took shape after he made the pitch that for him Rod Roddenberrya friend and his son Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who agreed to sponsor the competition. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and ARK Invest FOUNDER Cathie Wood also signed. “Every day at ARK, we look five years outsaid Wood in a post on X. “This competition asks creators to do the same—and show us the bright side of disruptive technology-enabled innovation!”
Presented in partnership with Google and the 100 Zeros initiative by Range Media Partners, the contest also counts the crypto mogul Jed McCaleb AND Andreessen Horowitz co Ben Horowitz among its donors. The prize pool, currently just under $4 million, is expected to grow as more backers come on board, 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 close on August 15, with a winner to be announced in September. The first entry will receive $2.5 million in production funding plus $100,000 in cash, while four runners-up will each receive $100,000. Filmmakers are encouraged to use AI in their work in any way they choose—besides writing or generating their own scripts. “It’s meant to have human spirit and purpose in it,” Diamandis said.
So far, the contest has drawn about 1,000 applicants, a number Diamandis expects could grow to 5,000 or even 10,000. All trailers will be posted on to YouTubewhere he hopes to “flood” the platform with “positive visions of the future” set in worlds ranging from space habitats to robot-filled societies to civilizations that have eliminated aging.
He argues that this kind of optimism is essential to steer public attitudes toward AI away from fear and reaction. “I don’t think there’s any question at this point that there’s a lot of fear growing there,” he said. “This fear will lead to social unrest on a significant level.”
Beyond uplifting techno-utopian stories, Diamandis is already thinking about future XPrizes, including competitions that use AI to enable interspecies communication and measure, then optimize, human happiness. Asked to name his favorite XPrize in the foundation’s 32-year history, he said, “The future.”
