Build Small Hackathon

The pace of AI over the last year has been anxiety-inducing. Labs release larger and larger models that do more of the things that make us feel human — writing, drawing, speaking, coding. No wonder more than half of us think the risks of AI outweigh the benefits.

We're sponsoring a hackathon to take things back to how they felt in 2021 — when models were small enough to tinker with, and the vibe was fun and hopeful about how this technology could improve our lives.

This hackathon is different. Rather than using a giant LLM to ship yet another B2B SaaS, we want you to think small. Armed with only 32 billion parameters, solve a problem someone you know is facing — or build something whimsical.

🤑 Prizes worth more than $15k in cash are on offer. To participate: 1) Join the Huggingface Org here: https://huggingface.co/build-small-hackathon and 2) Register here: https://huggingface.co/spaces/build-small-hackathon/registration

You can participate under Two Tracks:

Track One : 🏡Backyard AI

Solve a real problem for someone you actually know. Pick a person — a neighbor, a parent, a small-business owner on your street — and build something that makes their day measurably better.

Track Two : 🍄 An Adventure in Thousand Token Wood

Build something delightful that wouldn't exist without AI. Wander somewhere weirder. A toy, a tiny game, a strange interactive story, an art experiment that surprises you. The AI should be doing the fun thing — not just helping you build it. Strange is good. Joyful is the bar.