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« Sergey Brin on the X Prize via a Texai Robot | Main | Should You Pack Candles for the World Cup? »

May 17, 2010

Robots Attend This Year's X Prize Benefit for Humanity

Xprize foundation The X Prize Foundation's annual event was held at San Francisco's Letterman Digital Arts Center this past weekend.

Coined as a radical event for humanity, X Prize Foundation's Chairman & CEO Peter Diamandis gathered some of the brightest visionaries in the areas of science, sustainability, entertainment, technology and medicine together under one roof.

Inside schmooze xprize event (5)

Inside schmooze xprize event (7)

Jaykumar Menon, Susan Celia Swan

Inside schmooze xprize event (8)

Peter Diamandis

Peter on stage (12)

Robin Williams, Renee Blodgett

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Bruce Katz on the right

Inside schmooze xprize event (3)

Networking at xprize event (1)

Roger Bingham

Roger-bingham (1)

Auren Hoffman

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Robin Williams

Robin Williams on stage (13)

Jonathan Conrad

Networking at xprize event (23)

Jaykumar Menon and John Hagel meet a PR2

Texai engages with xprize crowd (2)

On the left, Keenan Wyrobek

Xprize cocktail reception (3)

Committee members who add their knowledge and time to the foundation include the likes of Sir Richard Branson, John Doerr, Scott Hassan, Reid Hoffman, Arianna Huffington, Chad Hurley, Steve Jurveton, Dean Kamen, Vinod Khosla, Eric Schmidt, Craig Vender and a host of others. In addition to Peter Diamandis, Sergey Brin and Larry Page co-chair and Larry gave a short speech.

Larry Page on the xprize stage (5)

The live auction included Taj Jaguar and Airship Ventures packages, Chihuly Glass Art, a Harry Winston Ocean timepiece, a Genome 100, a SpaceShipOne Full Size Replica, an ICON A5 Amphibious Aircraft, a Zero G with James Cameron and a Virgin Galactic Flight.

They announced a new prize platform called "X CHALLENGEs," which unlike an X Prize which focuses on a global paradigm change over a 3 to 8 year period, concentrates on a near-term technology advancement over a one to two year window. The amount raised is also smaller, ranging from $250K to $2.5 million. The hope is that when these contributions are properly used, the money raised can serve as a powerful economic tool for solving difficult challenges and bringing about authentic breakthroughs.

Bobby Yang & His Unrivaled Players performed during a cocktail reception while Willow Garage robots zipped around the floor. The PR2 robots 'played' with attendees and Robin Williams even managed to do the cha cha with a PR2 named "007."

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Tony Robbins, Esther Dyson, Autodesk's Jonathan Knowles and a few others navigated Texai robots remotely from southern California and elsewhere in the Bay Area and as far away as Prague and Argentina. Below Tony says hello to Peter and laughs with some of the attendees.

Tony Robbins in the Texai robottt (6)

Below is a video of Google's Sergey Brin who addressed the crowd from Utah via the screen of a Willow Garage Texai robot. He says hello and waves to Esther Dyson who was hanging out in another Texai propped in the front of the room. What an incredibly innovative and cool way to experience an event you cannot attend in real-time.

Listen to Ray Kurzweil talk about how far computers have come, and the power of a system that combines doctors with artificial intelligence which can bring high quality medical care to the vast number of humans. A short video clip below.

X Prize competitions provide the opportunity for individuals and companies to make philanthropic investments that are low-risk leveraged grants (teams typically spend in aggregate, 10 to 40 times the purse in research and development) that yield unprecedented returns in innovation, public awareness and support for radical breakthroughs that benefit humanity as a whole.

More shots taken throughout the evening.

Scott Hassan, Peter Farrell

Scott-Hassan at Xprize event (1)

Texai in action (5)

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Steve Cousins and Adeo Ressi

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Networking at xprize event (16)

Peter Farrell, Renee Blodgett

Peter-Farrell and Renee-Blodgett

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Networking at xprize event (28)

Eric Berger on the right

Texai in action (3)

Peter Diamandis and Sergey Brin

Serays talk (10)

Food at Xprize event (7)

And, for those wondering what else was on the menu, they served green garlic pistou, fresh favas, white truffle mashed yukon gold potatoes, crispy roti, skywalker ranch herb zucchini cakes, porcini mushrooms, avocado and basil creme fraiche as well as a killer organic TCHO dark chocolate dome to die for with strawberry reduction. I had two. Ouch!!

May 17, 2010 in America The Free, Client Announcements, Client Media Kudos, Events, On Innovation, On Robotics, On Science, On Technology, On the Future, San Francisco, Social Gigs & Parties, Videos | Permalink

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