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Get ready for the Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon

Open to anyone with an idea

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Are you a developer who loves to create innovative and impactful solutions? Do you want to learn how to use Azure AI and GitHub Copilot to build apps that combine language, image, video, or voice to make a difference in the world? Do you want to win cash prizes, Azure credits, and recognition for your ideas? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then join us for this year’s Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon, a virtual challenge where you use your skills to create exciting Generative AI apps! 

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The hackathon kicks off today and is open to developers residing in the United States. You can register as an individual or as a team on the DevPost hackathon website and submit your project by May 6th, 2024. And, to help you build, participants can request $1000 in Azure credits per team, GitHub Copilot access, and Azure OpenAI Service access (terms and conditions apply). 

What are you waiting for? You can start building and making your submissions starting April 1st until May 6th on DevPost, a developer community platform for hackathons. Winners will be announced on the week of May 13th, 2024.  

There are many exciting prizes including total cash awards of up to $15,000, swag, and more Azure credits to continue developing your projects. Select winners will also get a chance to attend and showcase their work at Build 2024, the largest Microsoft developer conference of the year, and get feedback from experts and mentors. Plus, you’ll be part of a community of AI innovators who are pushing the boundaries of AI with Azure. 

Why Generative AI and Multimodal Apps?

Multimodal AI, with its ability to understand and process a diverse range of data types—text, images, video, and voice—paves the way for a future where technology understands us in all the ways we communicate. This is not just about improving user interfaces; it’s about rethinking how we interact with machines, making those interactions as intuitive and natural as speaking to a friend.

At the forefront of AI research and development, Microsoft aims to inspire and mobilize the developer community by offering a platform to innovate. Through Azure AI, developers have access to a rich suite of tools capable of creating cutting-edge multimodal experiences that makes technology better for people. This includes Azure AI Studio, featuring GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, DALL-E3 for generating images, Text-to-Speech technologies, and a comprehensive model catalog of over 1600 models. GitHub Copilot, an AI-driven coding assistant, is available to enhance your coding experience and quality in VS Code, facilitating development of your multimodal apps.

So, what creative ideas and solutions that solve problems for people or organizations are you excited to create? You can make a fruit recognition system for young children, an audio descriptor for accessibility purposes, a voice-controlled smart home app, a video summarizer that outputs a text summary, a visual chart reader that extracts necessary information, or anything else that adds value and sparks your imagination.

We want to see what you can do to reimagine the future of any area you are passionate about by using multimodal ideas, Responsible AI principles or tools, and leveraging Azure AI to make technology more accessible, more useful, and more impactful for everyone.

We can’t wait to see what you build. Good luck and happy hacking!

Terms & Conditions

Access to Azure credits will be via an application to Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub available to the first 500 teams that sign up. Azure OpenAI Service requires a form submission per team and approval. More information on full terms and conditions and how to request credits, Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot is available on https://aka.ms/GenAIHackathon

For more information on rules, prizes, learning resources, and project tips please visit our DevPost hackathon website.

Register at https://aka.ms/GenAIHackathon

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