GlobalAI Debates Fall Launch; New Prize Money Available
Prepare this summer
We are pleased to announce the dates for the Fall 2026 GlobalAI Debates. Thanks to the support of the Future for Life Institute, we will be able to offer $3,500 in prize money, and we are continuing to raise money to both expand the prize pool and to provide financial support for those who may not otherwise be able to participate.
We hope this competition will help build student awareness of AI, which is likely to be one of the most consequential technologies in human history, and help students develop the essential soft skills, including communication skills, that will be crucial in this new era.
“I’ve always thought of AI as the most profound technology humanity is working on; more profound than fire or electricity or anything that we have done in the past.”— Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google[i]
“We’re in a perfect storm of change…The advancements in AI over the past three years are unlike anything anyone anticipated. We’re still in the early innings of what’s possible. I worry that no one in the ecosystem, from communities to companies to federal programs, is responding fast enough. The need is going to quickly become extremely urgent.” Maria Flynn, CEO of Jobs for the Future [ii]
“We cannot stop the trend that AI will be the future, and actually, we are already inside the future.”
Yunkai Liu, Professor of Computer and Information Science[iii]
“There is absolutely no question that machines will eventually surpass human-level intelligence in all domains. And it’s going to happen in the lifetimes of most people here.”
– Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist, Meta (frmr); Professor @ NYU; AI Turing Prize[iv]
“Change over the next 5 years, 10 years will dwarf everything that’s happened over the last 30...The Fortune 500 companies, they know this.” - Mark Cuban[v]
“This—all of this—is barely version 1.0.”
Fei Fei Li, Sequoia Capital Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University; “Godmother of AI”[vi]
“We are now at a point where we have a new type of hybrid learning, and it is not about online or face-to-face anymore. It’s about humans and AI.”
– B. Mairéad Pratschke, Professor and Chair in Digital Education, University of Manchester[vii]
‘Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times.”
- -Thomas Jefferson, 1816[viii]
[i] Sundair Pachai. 2023.
Google CEO: AI impact to be more profound than discovery of fire, electricity | 60 Minutes
[ii] Maria Flynn In ahead Roslansky, Ryan; Raman, Aneesh. Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI 2026 (pp. 125-6). Kindle Edition.
[iii] Deanna Poole. April 21, 2026. https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/gannon-embraces-ai-education-to-equip-students-for-workforce/. Gannon embraces AI education to equip students for workforce
[iv] The Impact of chatGPT talks (2023) - Keynote address by Prof. Yann LeCun (NYU/Meta).
[v] Cuban, Mark. March 8, 2023. AI Will Take Your Job.
[vi] Fei Fei Li. 2025. https://imminent.translated.com/large-language-thoughts-2. Large Language Thoughts — 2025
[vii] Let’s Talk Science. (2025, April 12). Coffee & a keynote — Mairéad Pratschke: The new hybrid: Transforming teaching in the age of AI [Event description]. https://letstalkscience.ca/events/program-timetable/coffee-a-keynote-mairead-pratschke-new-hybrid-transforming-teaching-in-age
[viii]https://www.nps.gov/thje/learn/photosmultimedia/quotations.htm#:~:text=%22I%20am%20not%20an%20advocate,regimen%20of%20their%20barbarous%20ancestors.%22