AI + Nukes $20k Essay Contest!

hot nuke summer

We’re hosting an open-ended contest where you write and/or create something interesting about how AI could shape the future of nuclear weapons.

Want to take on command and control? Arms control verification? Escalation dynamics? Targeting? Proliferation? We’re open to whatever! Just tell us how things might change and why it would matter!¹

You can submit both essays (roughly in the 2,500–4,000 word range) and projects. For projects, my initial idea was something vibecoded, but we’re open to being surprised. Submit whatever you think we’ll think is worth a share of the prize pool.

Winners’ essays and projects will be featured on the newsletter. You’ll have the opportunity to record a podcast episode with your winning cohort. And you’ll earn a share of our $20,000 prize pool. Group submissions are totally fine.

Submit here. You have one month: deadline is July 24th.

Our esteemed list of judges includes:

• Pranay Vaddi, now at MIT, did nukes on Biden’s NSC, hosts the Strategic Simplicity podcast

• Chris McGuire, now at CFR, former NSC deputy senior director for technology and national security, at one point was State’s lead subject matter expert on U.S.-Russia nuclear weapons and arms control policy

• Mike Horowitz, now at Penn, DAS for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities and Director of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office

• Tony Stark, WarTalk cohost, writes the Breaking Beijing substack, man about town

• Sam Winter-Levy, fellow at Carnegie, all-around nuke guy

• And me!

  1. We’re also open to essays arguing AI won’t change anything!