What Are the AI Darwin Awards?
Named after Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, the original Darwin Awards celebrated those who "improved the gene pool by removing themselves from it" through spectacularly stupid acts. Well, guess what? Humans have evolved! We're now so advanced that we've outsourced our poor decision-making to machines.
The AI Darwin Awards proudly continue this noble tradition by honouring the visionaries who looked at artificial intelligence—a technology capable of reshaping civilisation—and thought, "You know what this needs? Less safety testing and more venture capital!" These brave pioneers remind us that natural selection isn't just for biology anymore; it's gone digital, and it's coming for our entire species.
Because why stop at individual acts of spectacular stupidity when you can scale them to global proportions with machine learning?
Nomination Criteria
Your nominee must demonstrate a breathtaking commitment to ignoring obvious risks:
- AI Involvement Required: Must involve cutting-edge artificial intelligence (or what they confidently called "AI" in their investor pitch deck).
- Catastrophic Potential: The decision must be so magnificently short-sighted that future historians will use it as a cautionary tale (assuming there are any historians left).
- Hubris Bonus Points: Extra credit for statements like "What's the worst that could happen?" or "The AI knows what it's doing!"
- Ethical Blind Spots: Demonstrated ability to completely ignore every red flag raised by ethicists, safety researchers, and that one intern who keeps asking uncomfortable questions.
- Scale of Ambition: Why endanger just yourself when you can endanger everyone? We particularly appreciate nominees who aimed for global impact on their first try.
Winning Criteria
Our distinguished panel of judges (and the occasional rogue AI) evaluates nominees based on:
- Measurable Impact: Bonus points if your AI mishap made international headlines, crashed markets, or required new legislation named after you.
- Creative Destruction: We appreciate innovative approaches to endangering humanity. Cookie-cutter robot uprisings need not apply.
- Viral Stupidity: Did your AI blunder become a meme? Did it spawn a thousand think pieces? Did it make AI safety researchers weep openly?
- Unintended Consequences: The best nominees never saw it coming. "But the AI was supposed to help!" is music to our ears.
- Doubling Down: Extra recognition for those who, when confronted with evidence of their mistake, decided to deploy even more AI to fix it.
Winners are selected through a democratic process involving public voting, expert panels, and occasionally by the AI systems themselves (because what could possibly go wrong with letting artificial intelligence judge human stupidity?).
2025 Nominees
Meet this year's contenders for the AI Darwin Awards—visionaries whose bold decisions have set new standards in artificial intelligence misadventure. Curious to see the full list and their stories? View the 2025 Nominees.
Questions? We Have Answers!
Wondering how we verify our stories? Curious about nomination criteria? Need to know if you can nominate your CEO's latest "AI-powered innovation"? Check out our FAQ for answers to all your burning questions about the AI Darwin Awards.
Get Involved
Know someone who treated AI safety guidelines like suggestions? Witnessed a tech executive confidently explain why their new AI doesn't need testing? Seen a startup pitch that made you question humanity's survival instincts? We want to hear about it!
Help us celebrate the pioneers who boldly went where no responsible person should go. Whether you've witnessed corporate AI overconfidence or experienced the delightful chaos of untested deployment, your nominations help build tomorrow's cautionary tales.
Submit your nomination and join our mission to document AI misadventure for educational purposes. Remember: today's catastrophically bad AI decision is tomorrow's AI Darwin Award winner!
Disclaimer: By submitting a nomination, you acknowledge that the future of human civilisation may depend on people learning from these examples. No pressure.