About
Cortex Research Group
Cortex Research Group produces 🏕️ AI — a recurring live build competition where builders use AI tools to ship something real in 30 minutes, demo it live, and compete across a multi-week season toward a championship.
Seasons run
4
Challenges hosted
15
Builders registered
14
Partner organizations
9
Why this exists
A league for how people actually build with AI now
Most demos of AI tools are staged. We wanted a format where the build happens in public, on the clock, with a rubric published in advance — so a result means what it says.
Principles
What we optimize for
The constraint is the point
Thirty minutes isn't a gimmick — it's short enough that scope can't hide bad ideas, and long enough that something real gets built.
Judging stays independent
Sponsors fund challenges and prizes. They never touch a score, a ranking, or a judge's notes.
Say what didn't work
Disclosure — of pre-existing code, of what broke, of what you'd do differently — is part of the score, not a confession.
Publish the mechanism
Rubrics, weights, audit entries, and dispute resolutions are all public. If a result changes, so does the record.
Production
Who's running it
Tomas Eriksen
Lead producer & host, Cortex Research Group
Hosts most build windows live. Guest hosts — usually a judge or a builder from the community — step in for themed weeks, credited on the challenge page.
History
Every season so far
2 seasons in, and 6 judges deep
Come build, judge, or sponsor the next one.