Xprize founder Peter Diamandis launches new contest to manifest a new ‘Star Trek’
Source: TechCrunch
As any “Star Trek” fan will tell you, the reason this sci‑fi world has endured is its optimistic vision of the future, with technology as a force for good.
Famed XPRIZE founder, author, tech investor, motivational speaker, and longevity guru Peter Diamandis has just launched a new $3.5 million Future Vision XPRIZE to encourage more optimistic sci‑fi stories on screen.
“‘Star Trek’ offered a hopeful vision of the future, right? It was humans/humanity and technology in collaboration.” – Peter Diamandis, TechCrunch interview
He notes that many contemporary sci‑fi movies focus on dystopia—killer robots, AI gone wrong, “Black Mirror,” “Terminator,” “Ex Machina.”
The Contest
The Future Vision XPRIZE is a competition for film creators to tell stories about a positive technological future. Diamandis believes that seeing such narratives will help people build them.
- Location & dates: San Francisco, CA – October 13‑15, 2026 (TechCrunch event)
- Submission window: March 9 – August 15, 2026
- Format: Each applicant submits a three‑minute trailer. Winners will receive funding to produce a 10‑minute short.
Prize Structure
| Award | Amount |
|---|---|
| Grand prize (production funding for a feature film) | $2.5 million |
| Cash prize | $100,000 |
| Additional crowdfunding opportunity on Republic Film | $5‑10 million potential budget |
Judges, led by the team at Range Media, will narrow the trailer pool to a handful of shorts for funding.
AI, Longevity, and Creative Tools
Diamandis emphasizes that the most powerful tools are free and available to everyone—consumer AI models from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. He encourages contestants to use AI tools but warns against fully AI‑generated scripts and films:
“I don’t want an AI‑generated script and an AI‑generated film without the human.”
He cites longevity research as an example of AI’s impact: “AI is enabling us to understand what’s going on in our 40 trillion human cells.” (Diamandis and Tony Robbins co‑founded the longevity health‑tech company Fountain Life.)
The contest is partnered with the 100 Zeros initiative—a collaboration between Google and Range Media Partners that provides filmmakers with Google tools such as the video‑generation model Veo and the video‑creation tool Flow.
Sponsors and Donors
The prize pool is backed by a mix of industry leaders and personal contributors:
- Rod Roddenberry (son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry)
- Marc Benioff, billionaire CEO of Salesforce
- Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Invest
- Google (through the 100 Zeros partnership)
Additional donors include:
- Andreessen Horowitz (Ben Horowitz)
- Ripple co‑founder Jed McCaleb
- Actor‑producer Seth Green
About 15 members of Diamandis’s Abundance community of CEOs have contributed nearly half of the prize money.
Vision for the Future
Diamandis hopes the contest becomes a recurring event, turning dread into an “exponential mindset”—a sense of agency where “the future is happening for you, not to you.”
“Right now, there’s a huge amount of growing uncertainty in people’s lives. Will my kids have a job? Will I have a job?” – Peter Diamandis
By showcasing hopeful, tech‑driven stories, the Future Vision XPRIZE aims to inspire both creators and audiences to imagine—and ultimately build—a brighter tomorrow.