INTRINSIC AI FOR INDUSTRY CHALLENGE OFFICIAL RULES
ENTRY IN THIS COMPETITION CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES.
The Intrinsic AI for Industry Challenge (the “Challenge”) is a skill Challenge where entrants must form Teams (defined below) and develop a visual-sensory-motor policy and robotics application for flexible cable manipulation and insertion tasks (the “Submission(s)”). The Submissions will be automatically scored and evaluated by judges, who will choose the winner(s) in accordance with these Official Rules. The prize(s) will be awarded to Teams with the highest scores in the judging criteria. See below for the complete details.
1. BINDING AGREEMENT: In order to enter the Challenge, you must agree to these Official Rules (“Rules”). Therefore, please read these Rules prior to entry to ensure you understand and agree. You agree that the act of entering the Challenge constitutes agreement to these Rules. You may not enter the Challenge and are not eligible to receive the prizes described in these Rules unless you agree to these Rules. These Rules form a binding legal agreement between you and Intrinsic with respect to the Challenge.
2. ELIGIBILITY:
2.1 Sanctions and Restricted Territories. The Challenge is subject to all applicable U.S. laws and regulations, including those administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). As such, individuals and entities residing in, or organized under the laws of, countries or regions currently sanctioned by the United States are not eligible to participate. This includes but is not limited to, individuals on the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List and individuals located in or nationals of the following countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and regions like Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk. It is your responsibility to ensure your compliance with all applicable laws. If it is determined that participation violates any U.S. law or regulation, the organizers reserve the right to disqualify the participant and/or forfeit any prize or award.
2.2 Age. To be eligible to enter the Challenge, you must be above the age of majority in the country or state where you reside at the time of entry.
2.3 Challenge Entities and affiliates. Employees, interns, contractors, and official office-holders of Intrinsic, Open Source Robotics Media, Inc., and their parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective directors, officers, employees, advertising and promotion agencies, representatives, and agents (“Challenge Entities”), and members of the Challenge Entities’ and their immediate families (parents, siblings, children, spouses, and life partners of each, regardless of where they live) and members of the households (whether related or not) of such employees, officers and directors are ineligible to participate in this Challenge. Sponsor reserves the right to verify eligibility and to adjudicate on any dispute at any time.
2.4 Companies. If you are acting within the scope of your employment, as an employee, contractor, or agent of another party, you warrant that such party has full knowledge of your actions and has consented thereto, including your potential receipt of a prize. You further warrant that your actions do not violate your employer’s or company’s policies and procedures.
3. SPONSOR: The Challenge is sponsored by Intrinsic Innovation, LLC (“Intrinsic” or “Sponsor”), a Delaware limited liability company with principal place of business at 640 Clyde Ct. Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA.
4. CHALLENGE PERIOD: The Challenge begins at 12:00:00 A.M. Pacific Time (PT) Zone in the United States on February 11, 2026 and ends at 11:59:59 P.M. PT on or about July 31, 2026 (“Challenge Period”). Any adjustments of the Challenge Period will be made on the Challenge Site and communicated to entrants through email. The Challenge will be conducted in three phases. While the Qualification phase is open to all entrants that make a Submission, participation in subsequent phases will be limited as follows:
Qualification Phase- Available to all entrants, begins at 12:00:00 A.M. Pacific Time (PT) Zone in the United States on February 11, 2026 and ending on a specific date to be announced on the Challenge Site
Phase 1- Available to the top 30 teams from the Qualification Phase, beginning and ending on specific dates to be announced on the Challenge Site
Phase 2- Available to the top 10 teams from Phase 1, beginning and ending on specific dates to be announced on the Challenge Site
5. ENTRY AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.
5.1 Challenge Entry and Team Formation.
To participate in the Challenge and gain eligibility to make a Submission, entrants must complete a two-step registration process by the deadline posted on the Challenge Site:
- Individual Registration: Each individual entrant must visit the Challenge website located at intrinsic.ai/events/ai-for-industry-challenge (“Challenge Site”) during the Challenge Period and follow the instructions to provide all required personal and contact information.
- Team Formation: Following individual registration, all entrants must form a Team to be eligible to make Submissions.
- Team Definition: A Team may consist of a single entrant or up to 10 entrants. Each entrant is restricted to only one Team.
- Team Lead: As part of the registration process, each Team is required to designate one entrant as the official point of contact for the Team.
- Authentication Token: Upon successful registration and team formation, each Team Lead will be provided with a unique authentication token via to make Submissions.
5.2 Submission Requirements and Limitations. All Submissions must meet the following criteria to be eligible for judging (collectively, the “Requirements”):
- Submission Unit and Prize Award
- Mandatory Submission Unit: All Submissions must be made by a validly registered Team using their unique authentication token.
- Prize Award: Each Team is limited to one final prize based on its highest-scoring Submission.
- Content, Format, and Technical Requirements
- Adherence to Guidelines: Submissions must adhere to all technical specifications and guidelines provided on the Challenge Site. Sponsor reserves the right to update technical requirements at any time.
- Originality: The Submission must be the original work of the Team AND developed during the Challenge Period.
- Code Disclosure: Use of pre-existing code or datasets must be disclosed and comply with all applicable licensing requirements.
- Harmful Content: Submissions must not contain offensive, illegal, or harmful content.
C. Submission Limits. Each Team can submit multiple Submissions before the Submission Deadlines. A mandatory cool-down period between Submissions will be administered. Details regarding the length of the cool-down period will be posted on the Challenge Site.
All Submissions for each Challenge phase must be received by 11:59 p.m. (PT) on the dates listed on the Challenge Site . Submissions are void if they are in whole or part illegible, incomplete, damaged, altered, counterfeit, obtained through fraud, or late. The potential winners may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holders for the associated email addresses.
During the Challenge Period, the Sponsor, its agents and/or the Judges (defined below) have the right to evaluate each Submission to ensure that it meets the Requirements. The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant who submits a Submission that does not meet the Requirements.
6. FLOWSTATE ACCESS:
6.1 Access. During Phase 1, Intrinsic will provide qualifying Teams access to Flowstate. Access and use of Flowstate is governed by Intrinsic’s Platform Terms of Service available at (https://intrinsic.ai/platform-terms/). These rules will not modify such terms or Intrinsic policies. Intrinsic Flowstate may not be available in all countries including the restricted countries and territories listed above due to local restrictions.
6.2 Confidentiality. To ensure a fair and level playing field for all Challenge participants, please do not share any information, images, videos, screen recordings, or livestreams of Flowstate during or after the Challenge Period.
7. SCORING AND JUDGING:
Quantitative Evaluation
During all Phases of the Challenge, Submissions will undergo automated scoring via a script. All three phases will be evaluated based on a combination of task success, precision, safety, and cycle time. For the Qualification Phase, Submissions will be directly evaluated through an automated portal. For Phase 1 and Phase 2, scoring will be conducted on the submitted Flowstate solution. A leaderboard will display each Team’s most recent Submission score rankings.
For advancement, only the highest-scoring Submission from each Team in the current phase will be considered, and the top-ranked Teams will proceed to the next phase.
Qualitative Evaluation
In addition to the automated scoring, a panel of judges, who are employees of the Sponsor and/or partnering organizations (“Judges”), will review final submissions and award bonus or penalty points based on the Submissions’ Innovation, technical Soundness, scalability and alignment with Challenge Mission.
Judges will evaluate and attribute a score to each Submission made up of scores based upon the above-listed criteria. Prizes will be awarded to the Teams with the highest overall scores. In the event a potential winner is disqualified for any reason, the Submission that received the next highest total score will be chosen as the potential winner.
In July 2026, the potential winner(s) will be selected and notified by email to the Team Lead.All notification requirements, as well as other requirements within these Rules, will be strictly enforced. In the event that no entries are received, no prize will be awarded. Determinations of judges are final and binding.
8. PRIZES: Prizes will be awarded as follows:
- First place - $100,000 USD
- Second place - $40,000 USD
- Third place - $20,000 USD
- Fourth and fifth place - $10,000 USD
Odds of winning any prize depends on the number of eligible entries received during the Challenge Period and the skill of the entrants. The prizes will be awarded within approximately eight weeks of receipt by Sponsor of final prize acceptance documents. Other Sponsors may award additional prizes, such prizes are made at the sole discretion of the awarding Sponsor, and no Challenge Entity has any obligation or liability arising out of the promise or awarding additional prizes.
9. WINNER NOTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION: The Team Leads associated with the prize winning Submissions will be notified via email. Potential prize winners must respond to the initial notification attempt within 7 days. Each potential winner is subject to verification of eligibility and may, in Sponsor’s discretion, be required to submit proof of identity and/or eligibility in a form acceptable to Sponsor. Failure to provide such proof to the satisfaction of Sponsor in a timely manner may result in disqualification. Each entrant represents that they will provide accurate and truthful information to Sponsor in connection with eligibility verification.
Prize payments may be made through a third-party payment platform of the Sponsor's choosing. It is the sole responsibility of the winning Teams to ensure they are eligible and able to receive payments via the designated platform. The Sponsor is not obligated to accommodate requests to use alternative payment methods.
10. TAXES: PAYMENTS TO POTENTIAL WINNERS ARE SUBJECT TO THE EXPRESS REQUIREMENT THAT THEY SUBMIT TO INTRINSIC ALL DOCUMENTATION REQUESTED BY INTRINSIC TO PERMIT IT TO COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE STATE, FEDERAL AND LOCAL TAX REPORTING AND WITHHOLDING REQUIREMENTS. ALL PRIZES WILL BE NET OF ANY TAXES INTRINSIC IS REQUIRED BY LAW TO WITHHOLD. ALL TAXES IMPOSED ON PRIZES ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WINNERS. In order to receive a prize, potential winners must submit the tax documentation requested by Intrinsic or otherwise required by applicable law, to Intrinsic or the relevant tax authority, all as determined by applicable law, including, where relevant, the law of the potential winner’s country of residence. If you are a potential winner, you are responsible for ensuring that you comply with all the applicable tax laws and filing requirements. If you fail to provide such documentation or comply with such laws, the prize may be forfeited and Intrinsic may, in its sole discretion, select an alternative potential winner.
11. GENERAL CONDITIONS: All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Intrinsic reserves the right to disqualify any entrant from the Challenge if, in Intrinsic’s sole discretion, it reasonably believes that the entrant has attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of the Challenge by cheating, deception, or other unfair playing practices or annoys, abuses, threatens or harasses any other entrants, Intrinsic, or the Judges.
12. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: By making a Submission in this Challenge, the entrant warrants and represents that (s)he owns all of the intellectual and industrial property rights in and to the Submission. Further, the entrant hereby grants Intrinsic a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display and create a derivative work from, any entry or Submission that entrant submits solely for the purposes of allowing Intrinsic to test and evaluate the Submission for purposes of the Challenge and to advertise, display, demonstrate, or otherwise promote Flowstate. Entrant specifically agrees that Intrinsic shall have the right to use, reproduce, publicly perform, and publicly display the Submission in connection with the advertising and promotion of the Challenge and FLOWSTATE, via communication to the public or other groups, including, but not limited to the right to make screenshots, animations and video clips available for promotional purposes.
13. PRIVACY: Entrant acknowledges and agrees that Intrinsic may collect, store, share and otherwise use personally identifiable information provided during the registration process and the Challenge, including, but not limited to, name, mailing address, phone number, and email address. Intrinsic will use this information in accordance with the Intrinsic Privacy Policy, for administering the Challenge and verifying entrant’s identity, postal address and telephone number during the sign-up and in the event an entry qualifies for a prize. This processing is necessary to enter into and perform our contract with you according to the Rules. In addition, Intrinsic will process any optional information you choose to provide on the sign-up form, such as your job responsibilities, programming experience and tool usage, for the legitimate interest of product and service improvement and design of the Challenge. You have the right to object to this specific processing at any time by writing to Intrinsic at this email address: legal-notices@intrinsic.ai or by contacting Intrinsic via other methods set out in the Intrinsic Privacy Policy.
14. PUBLICITY. By accepting a prize, entrant agrees to Sponsor and its agencies use of their name and/or likeness and Submission for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law.
15. WARRANTY, INDEMNITY AND RELEASE: Entrants warrant that their Submissions are their own original work and, as such, they are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the submitted Submission and that they have the right to submit the Submission in the Challenge and grant all required licenses. Each entrant agrees not to submit any Submission that (1) infringes any third party proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, industrial property rights, personal or moral rights or any other rights, including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy, publicity or confidentiality obligations; or (2) otherwise violates the applicable state or federal law.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant indemnifies and agrees to keep Challenge Entities at all times from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses resulting from any act, default or omission of the entrant and/or a breach of any warranty set forth herein. To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Challenge Entities from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees) arising out of or accruing from (a) any Submission or other material uploaded or otherwise provided by the entrant that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other intellectual property right of any person or defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or privacy, (b) any misrepresentation made by the entrant in connection with the Challenge; (c) any non-compliance by the entrant with these Rules; (d) claims brought by persons or entities other than the parties to these Rules arising from or related to the entrant’s involvement with the Challenge; and (e) acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize or participation in any Challenge-related activity or participation in this Challenge.
Entrant releases Intrinsic from any liability associated with: (a) any malfunction or other problem with the Challenge Site; (b) any error in the collection, processing, or retention of entry information; or (c) any typographical or other error in the printing, offering or announcement of any prize or winners.
16. ELIMINATION: Any false information provided within the context of the Challenge by any entrant concerning identity, mailing address, telephone number, email address, ownership of right or non-compliance with these Rules or the like may result in the immediate elimination of the entrant from the Challenge.
17. INTERNET: Challenge Entities are not responsible for any malfunction of the entire Challenge Site or any late, lost, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible, undeliverable, or destroyed Submissions due to system errors, failed, incomplete or garbled computer or other telecommunication transmission malfunctions, hardware or software failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, typographical or system/human errors and failures, technical malfunction(s) of any telephone network or lines, cable connections, satellite transmissions, servers or providers, or computer equipment, traffic congestion on the Internet or at the Challenge Site, or any combination thereof, including other telecommunication, cable, digital or satellite malfunctions which may limit an entrant’s ability to participate.
18. RIGHT TO CANCEL, MODIFY OR DISQUALIFY. If for any reason the Challenge is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Challenge, Intrinsic reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Challenge. Intrinsic further reserves the right to disqualify any entrant who tampers with the submission process or any other part of the Challenge or Challenge Site. Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any web site, including the Challenge Site, or undermine the legitimate operation of the Challenge is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Intrinsic reserves the right to seek damages from any such entrant to the fullest extent of the applicable law.
19. NOT AN OFFER OR CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT: Under no circumstances shall submitting aSubmission into the Challenge, the awarding of a prize, or anything in these Rules be construed as an offer or contract of employment with either Intrinsic, or the Challenge Entities. You acknowledge that you have submitted your Submission voluntarily and not in confidence or in trust. You acknowledge that no confidential, fiduciary, agency or other relationship or implied-in-fact contract now exists between you and Intrinsic or the Challenge Entities and that no such relationship is established by you submitting a Submission under these Rules.
20. FORUM AND RECOURSE TO JUDICIAL PROCEDURES: These Rules shall be governed by, subject to, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, United States of America, excluding all conflict of law rules. If any provision(s) of these Rules are held to be invalid or unenforceable, all remaining provisions hereof will remain in full force and effect.
21. ARBITRATION: By entering the Challenge, you agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute, claim, or demand related in any way to the Challenge will be decided by binding arbitration. All disputes between you and Intrinsic of whatsoever kind or nature arising out of these Rules, shall be submitted to Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (“JAMS”) for binding arbitration under its rules then in effect in the San Jose, California, USA area, before one arbitrator to be mutually agreed upon by both parties. The parties agree to share equally in the arbitration costs incurred.