About the challenge

MiniMax 2025 AI Hackathon is the first open-to-all AI hackathon in Hong Kong, welcoming anyone with an interest or passion for the AI industry. Powered by MiniMax's leading-edge AI tools of text, image, video, audio, and even music, we believe everyone can push the boundaries of AI by unleashing their creativity.

Thanks to the great help of Hong Kong's political and business communities, we are very much looking forward to seeing projects that not only solve real-life problems, but also carry broad social and commercial value.

It's a free-to-enter event open to everyone. In addition to cash prizes and MiniMax credit, outstanding participants will have the chance to present their ideas directly to top investors, and potentially receive funding to start their own business.

 

Event Structure

1. Competition Tracks

In this hackathon, we set the Developer Track and the Creator Track for participants with or without programming experience.

Wonder which track you are suitable for?

If you are a programmer or just have basic coding knowledge, and want to build something with helpful AI tools to solve real-world challenges or contribute to society. Then the developer track is definitely your track!

If coding is not your thing, but you often find brilliant ideas popping in your head - and you want to express them through film or music with the help of AI. Then you are all set for the creator track.

2. Theme

  • Developer Track: "Build the Future AI Agent"

  • Creator Track: "The Symphony of Sentience"

4. Categories

  • Developer Track
    • First Place/Runner Up/Third Place: Awarded to the top 3 projects overall based on all judging criteria—technical strength, creativity, real-world value, and pitching.
    • Best Social Contribution: Honors the project that best serves a societal or community need
    • Best Practical Utility: Awarded to the project that is most useful and immediately applicable.
    • Best Commercial Potential: Goes to the project with the most promising business value.
    • Most Innovative Use of AI: For the team that pushed boundaries and applied AI in a surprising, novel, or technically inventive way, or have a more efficient code innovation based on existing tools
  • Creator Track
    • (Film) Best Narrative: Awarded to the work with the most compelling story or structure.
    • (Film) Best Visual Effect: Honors the piece with the most visually stunning and technically impressive visuals.
    • (Film) Best Experimental Work: Goes to bold and unconventional projects. Whether it’s abstract, surreal, or totally unexpected
    • (Film) Best Technical Innovation: Awarded to the creator who shows deep mastery or novel use of AI tools, workflows, or technology in the creative process.
    • (Film) Best Advertisement (tbd): For the best AI-generated or enhanced commercial, promo video, or branded concept.
    • (Film) Best Dubbing: Recognizes outstanding voice performance and dubbing work, including character voiceovers, lip sync, or multilingual delivery

 

Requirements

Submission Requirement

  • Developer Track

    • Include a URL of your project that can be successfully installed and/or run consistently

    • Include a URL to your public code repository to show how your project was built.

    • Include a text description that should explain the features, functionality and how the MiniMax tools were used in your project. If other open-source tools were used, references are mandatory. And participants need to adhere to the corresponding specifications.

    • Include a publicly accessible demo video showcasing key features (Maximum 2 minutes)

    • Include team info that list all members with roles and contributions

    • The language you used should be English or Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese)

    • The project must be created entirely from scratch during the time permitted

  • Creator Track

    • Include publicly accessible video/music of your work

    • ≥ 1 minute

    • (for film)16:9 aspect ratio (1920×1080 preferred), H.264

    • Include a text description that should explain the features, functionality and how the MiniMax tools were used in your project

    • Include team info that lists all members with roles and contributions

    • The language you used should be English or Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese)

    • The project must be created entirely from scratch during the time permitted

  • Content Rule

    • No malicious use (e.g., deepfake tools, spam generators)

    • No copyrighted code (all code must be original/open-source)

    • No copyrighted material in any form (visual/audio/text)

    • No explicit violence/gore

    • No pornography or sexually suggestive content

    • No politically sensitive themes

    • No extremist religious content or derogatory depictions of any faith

 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
TBA
10 winners

To be announce

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

TBA

TBA

Judging Criteria

  • Developer Track: Technical Implementation (30%)
    This evaluates the quality of your code, architecture, and how effectively AI technologies are implemented. It rewards technical depth, robustness, and clean engineering practices.
  • Developer Track: Innovation and Creativity (30%)
    This evaluates how original and inventive your idea is — whether it brings a fresh perspective, solves a problem in a novel way, or uses AI in an unexpected application.
  • Developer Track: Real-World Impact (30%)
    This evaluates the project's potential to make a real-world difference — whether through social impact, commercial potential, or solving practical pain points.
  • Developer Track: Demo and Pitching (10%)
    This covers how clearly and effectively your team communicates the value of your project. A strong demo and presentation can make a great idea shine.
  • Creator Track: Creativity and Originality (35%)
    This evaluates the uniqueness of your concept and how creatively you use AI tools in your film or music.
  • Creator Track: Technical Execution (35%)
    This evaluates how well your work is produced—from editing, sound design, to how smoothly the AI tools were integrated into your workflow.
  • Creator Track: Emotional Impact and Memorability (30%)
    This evaluates how well your work connects emotionally with the audience and whether it leaves a lasting impression.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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