Multimodal AI in Motion: Key Takeaways from the Advent of Multimodal AI Hackathon

The first Advent of Multimodal AI Hackathon was held virtually from December 11–13, 2024, and it brought together brilliant minds in AI from across the globe to explore the possibilities of multimodal AI technologies. Hosted by Intel® Liftoff for AI Startups in collaboration with Prediction Guard, Pixel ML, and The Mango Jelly, the event featured a mix of creative challenges, technical excellence, and community spirit.

The hackathon spanned three intense days of challenges, from creative image transformations, to chatbot-driven storytelling. Participants showcased their expertise in leveraging tools like Intel GPUs, Weaviate, and Prediction Guard LLM services, culminating in capstone projects that demonstrated their innovative approaches to multimodal AI.
Key offerings included access to Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud, professional plans for business intelligence tools, and mentorship opportunities - all designed to foster innovation and creativity.
These standout performances earned them not only prizes but also recognition as pioneers in the evolving field of multimodal AI.

Our Goals for the Event

What Was It About?

This three-day virtual hackathon focused on Multimodal AI, leveraging Intel GPUs on the Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud. It brought together AI developers, startup founders, and students to push the boundaries of AI innovation.
Multimodal AI is shaping the future across industries like healthcare, education, e-commerce, and entertainment. During the hackathon, participants explored how these technologies can drive solutions capable of handling the complex nature of real-world data.
Over the course of three days, participants tackled a series of AI challenges, with a new challenge released each morning at 9 AM. They experimented with stable diffusion, large language models (LLMs), and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), all designed to spark creativity and problem-solving.
On the final day, they brought everything together, building a complete application in a Jupyter Notebook environment—applying the skills and knowledge they had gained throughout the event.

The Platform

The hackathon was powered by Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud, providing participants with dedicated learning resources, Jupyter Notebooks, and access to Intel GPUs and CPUs. It’s all about providing learning opportunities on innovative AI solutions, and a get together in an AI ecosystem  for startups, students, developers to learn and experience the newest trends.

The Community

Collaboration was a key part of the experience. Participants connected with peers, mentors, and experts through the dedicated hackathon Slack channel, fostering discussions, sharing insights, and troubleshooting challenges together.
The hackathon also featured a panel discussion, Innovate Beyond Limits: Startups Shaping Multimodal AI, with Intel® Liftoff startups Pixel ML, The Mango Jelly, and Prediction Guard. These startups shared how they are using multimodal AI to solve real-world challenges, optimize workflows, and drive innovation. The session provided valuable insights into emerging trends, practical applications, and the future of AI.
These startups brought their expertise in multimodal AI to the hackathon, not only as participants but also as key contributors shaping the experience. Each of them provided hackathon challenges that encouraged teams to explore real-world AI applications, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI, vision models, and security in AI systems. Additionally, they sponsored hackathon prizes, recognizing the most innovative solutions developed during the event.

The Prizes

Participants gained access to  Intel® Tiber™AI Cloud’s advanced compute resources, alongside a range of prizes from both Intel and our contributing startups:

Hackathon Winners:

• 1st Place: $10,000 in  Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud credits (premium Intel GPU access for one month), plus a feature in the Intel® Liftoff blog & social media
• 2nd Place: $5,000 in cloud credits + Intel® Liftoff blog feature
• 3rd Place: $2,500 in cloud credits + Intel® Liftoff blog feature

Spot Prizes:

• Most Active Participant: $1,000 in cloud credits
• Selected Submissions: $50 in cloud credits

Startup-Sponsored Prizes:

• Prediction Guard: 1st place winners received one month of Enterprise Platform access, unlocking their Model Library & LLM Safeguards. A special "Startup for Startup" prize also granted one-month access plus direct consultation on secure AI solutions.
• The Mango Jelly: 1st place winners received three months of Professional Plan access, offering Conversational AI for Business Intelligence, Market & Competition Research. Their "Startup for Startup" prize also included dedicated support and consultation.
  
  

The Challenges

Over the course of three days, participants faced a series of AI challenges designed to test their skills and creativity. Each challenge was released daily at 9 AM, giving participants 24 hours to submit their solutions. The challenges covered a range of themes, from storytelling and marketing to open-ended AI innovation.

Day 1: AI-Powered Creativity and Storytelling

The first challenge focused on AI-powered storytelling, encouraging participants to explore multimodal AI for content generation. They experimented with combining models like Whisper for transcription, Llama 3.1 for text generation, and Stable Diffusion for visualization to create compelling narratives.

Day 2: Memes and Marketing

On the second day, participants applied AI to the world of marketing. Whether it was generating viral memes, crafting engaging copy, or designing AI-driven marketing strategies, this challenge tested their ability to blend creativity with AI-powered automation.

The Tracks

Participants had the opportunity to explore key AI themes throughout the hackathon:

• Multimodal Applications
• Model Inference
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• AI Vision

They could take one of two approaches:

• Track A: AI-Powered Creativity and Storytelling – Focused on using AI for content creation, interactive storytelling, and generative media.
• Track B: Intelligent Collaboration and Interaction – Designed for those interested in AI-driven collaboration tools, interactive AI applications, and intelligent agents.

Get a better understanding of the challenges for Day 1 and Day 2 in this video:  

Day 3: The Final Challenge – Build Your Multimodal Generative AI Application

The final challenge was an open-ended innovation challenge, giving participants complete freedom to create their own generative AI application. They could:

• Extend a previous challenge by improving their Day 1 or Day 2 submission.
• Start from scratch and build something entirely new that aligned with the hackathon theme.

Challenge Overview

Participants were tasked with designing and implementing a fully functional multimodal AI application, considering the following:

1. Innovative Idea – A novel and impactful application of generative AI.
2. Effective Implementation – Using multimodal models, APIs, and advanced AI techniques.
3. Creative Problem-Solving – Solving a real-world problem or delivering an engaging user experience.
4. Optional Extensions – Enhancing the project with personalization, real-time interaction, or platform-specific optimizations.

Tools and Resources

Participants had access to the Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud, featuring:

• Generative AI APIs for text (Phi3), images (SDXL, Flux), and multimodal processing (LLaVA-Next).
• No-code tools like AgenticFlow AI by Pixel ML.
• Jupyter Notebooks and Hugging Face libraries for full flexibility.
• Hybrid options combining APIs with custom AI pipelines.

Judging and Community Voting

Submissions were evaluated through a combination of community voting in the Slack channel and expert judging. Projects were assessed based on creativity, AI integration, execution quality, relevance to the hackathon theme, and presentation. Criteria remained consistent across all days, with a focus on both innovation and practical implementation.

What Our Participants Had to Say

"From zero to multimodal AI heroes in four days! We pulled all-nighters for four consecutive days, starting at 1am local time each day. We embraced the intensity and pushed our limits to build something amazing. This victory wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and creativity of everyone involved. This experience was not just about winning, it was about learning and growing together."

• Hafiz Zainudin, CEO & Founder, BeSeek

"Winning the spot prize for Excellence in Marketing AI at the Advent of Multimodal AI Hackathon feels like unlocking a secret level we didn’t even know we could reach! As a trio of rookies, we came for the experience and left with a victory — proof that bold ideas and teamwork can turn underdogs into champions. Here’s to chasing the next big adventure!"

• Omkar Kottawar, Soham and Dhanush, Students, Vit Bhopal University

"As second-year college students, participating in this hackathon has been an invaluable experience. We are incredibly grateful to Intel® Liftoff for this opportunity, as it allowed us to learn so much in just three days . From solving technical challenges to collaborating under time pressure, this journey has given us skills and confidence that we’ll carry forward."

• Arnav, Siddhartha, Mahijith, Students

"The hackathon provided us with hands-on experience in leveraging AI to automate complex workflows, making tasks such as creating manga, designing marketing content, and generating personalized greeting cards accessible to everyone. These solutions proved to be practical, cost-effective, and scalable, offering immense real-world applications in industries ranging from content creation to customer engagement. Beyond the technical achievements, this event was a fantastic opportunity for learning and exploration. Each of us gained deeper insights into the capabilities of multimodal AI and its transformative potential. The hackathon fostered teamwork, creativity, and a shared sense of accomplishment as we worked together to push the boundaries of what AI can do.

The hackathon emphasized how multimodal AI can revolutionize creative fields, marketing, and personalization. These solutions offer practical tools that simplify complex tasks, making them accessible to a wider audience. I’m inspired by how these innovations can be implemented in industries ranging from content creation to customer engagement, providing immense value in real-world scenarios."

• Yogesh Aryal, AI Developer, IOE, Thapathali Campus

"The Advent of Multimodal AI Hackathon 2024 was an unforgettable experience. Competing alongside such talented teams from across the globe inspired us to push our limits. Intel’s APIs were a joy to use, giving us the tools we needed to bring our ideas to life. This hackathon wasn’t just about creating—it was about learning, overcoming challenges, and working together to make something meaningful. Winning 3rd place was the cherry on top, and we can’t wait to participate again!

We are deeply thankful to Intel for providing this incredible opportunity. Competing with so many brilliant teams was inspiring and gave us a new perspective on innovation in AI. This experience has motivated us to aim higher and explore even more ambitious projects in the future."

• Barun Kumar Pattanaik, Student, VIT Bhopal

Our Next Adventure
Keep on the lookout for our next Intel® Liftoff event or upcoming opportunities for startups in the Intel® Liftoff for AI Startups program.

About Intel® Liftoff

Intel® Liftoff for startups is open to early-stage AI and machine learning startups. This free virtual program helps you innovate and scale, no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey.

Resources used during the Advent of Multimodal AI Hackathon

Intel® Tiber™ AI Cloud - Cloud platform for AI development and deployment

Deploy Models Instantly: Explore our AI templates at https://tiberaicommunity.github.io/ai-templates to set up a dedicated API for your project.

6th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor - Latest generation of enterprise server processors

Intel® Gaudi® 2 AI accelerator - High-performance AI training processor designed for deep learning workloads

Related resources

Empowering Enterprises with AI: The Mango Jelly’s Game-Changing Approach: https://community.intel.com/t5/Blogs/Tech-Innovation/Artificial-Intelligence-AI/Empowering-Enterprises-with-AI-The-Mango-Jelly-s-Game-Changing/post/1660933