The third Ideathon organized by the Ministry of Digital Affairs (moda) has started. This year’s theme is “WeWe Futures: 2040 Extended Intelligence)”. Everyone is invited to unleash their imagination and creativity, exploring the imagined and anticipated future of human-machine integration in 2040.

Today (the 12th), the moda held the “Third Ideathon Call for Submission Press Conference.” Minister Audrey Tang stated during her address that the previous two Ideathons focused on “WeWe Futures,” inviting people from all generations and regions to discuss their imaginations and expectations for life in 2040. Continuing in the spirit of the previous Ideathin, this year’s edition aims to collectively imagine a new future of human-machine integration and explore the possibilities of coexistence values.

Minister Tang stated that society has always progressed because of human dreams, driven by both those who continuously generate ideas and those who realize those ideas. What was once science fiction has become part of our daily lives, and what was once mere imagination has become our present reality. With the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), progress is accelerating. Therefore, the moda organizes the Ideathon, hoping to invite everyone to collectively envision the future and become a driving force for societal progress.

Minister Tang pointed out that in response to the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the moda officially became a partner of the international non-governmental organization “Collective Intelligence Project (CIP)” on May 25th of the previous year (2023). Together, they launched the Alignment Assemblies project and organized a series of citizen deliberation activities to explore the ethics of AI applications and insights into creation, aiming to build societal consensus on AI development. With this foundation in mind, the Ideathon hopes to continue fostering collaboration among all citizens to co-create the future.

The moda explained that the submission period of the third Ideathon is open from today until July 15th. Participants of all ages and nationalities are welcome as individuals or teams. Each individual or team can submit up to three entries. Participants are invited to describe their envisioned future perspectives (“Future Vision”) concerning life, communities, workplaces, and various environments. They can depict these visions through pure text descriptions or express them through multimedia such as graphics, images, and videos.

After the submission passes the preliminary selection stage, they will be guided by expert scholars to help refine the value of their submission before being submitted to the final selection stage. We hope that the creativity collected through this event will inspire innovation in future cutting-edge technologies. This year’s event plans to offer a total prize pool of up to 2.6 million, with all prize winners receiving money awards as well as certificates (or medals), and they will have the option to choose between physical or digital certificates (medals) as a commemoration of their achievements.

“The Ideathon” looks forward to exciting submissions from all sectors. For more details, please visit the Ideathon official website: https://ideathon.tw/en