Submission requirements, judging criteria, ethical guidelines, and legal terms.
Open worldwide to anyone 18 years of age or older. Government restrictions may apply in certain jurisdictions.
Teams of 1–5 participants. Every team member must register individually. Only one submission per team. A person may only be listed on a single team.
Choose one of four tracks: Anticipate & Disrupt, Assist & Amplify, Accountability & Justice, or Art Against Trafficking. Art Against Trafficking is also a cross-track special recognition.
Two stages.
Stage 1 — Technical review (Jul 9–18). Every valid submission is scored by 2–3 technical reviewers on: works as described, originality, technical depth, and ethics.
Stage 2 — Panel judging (Jul 18–27). Top projects per track advance to a panel that evaluates impact, feasibility, survivor-centered design, and presentation.
Participants retain full ownership of their project IP. By submitting, you grant Austin AI Hub a non-exclusive license to display and discuss your project for promotional purposes.
Projects must follow UN Do No Harm principles. Solutions involving survivor data must demonstrate consent-first design, privacy-preserving architecture, and human oversight. Any solution scraping facial images, re-identifying victims, or bypassing bot/identity protections is automatically disqualified.
Any language, framework, or AI platform is permitted. You must be transparent about model providers and any training data sources. Generated content that could deceive viewers about real people or events must be clearly labelled.
Participating partners may offer free credits on select AI platforms. Details posted in the Discord #resources channel once the hackathon opens.
Top teams enter the AI Hub Incubator — a 6-month mentorship and pilot pathway designed to move projects from prototype to responsible real-world deployment.
All participants, judges, and reviewers agree to behave respectfully. Harassment, discrimination, intimidation, or survivor re-traumatization is grounds for immediate removal. Reports can be made anonymously to team@austinaihub.org.
Submissions may be disqualified for plagiarism, deceptive representation, violation of ethical guidelines, or breach of the Code of Conduct. The organizer's decisions are final.
By participating you affirm you have the right to contribute your submission, that it does not violate any third-party rights, and that you accept the final decisions of organizers and judges.
Questions? team@austinaihub.org