site.btaFirst International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad Takes Place in Burgas, Sees Record Turnout

A record number of over 200 participants from nearly 40 countries have registered to compete in the first International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), scheduled to take place between August 9 and 15 in Burgas, Mayor Dimitar Nikolov and two of the IOAI founders, Elena Marinova and Aleksandar Velinov, said at a press conference on Friday. The competition presents a significant challenge for the city and the organizing team.

A special event featuring singer Maria Ilieva and local performers will mark the official start of IOAI at the Adriana Budevska Drama Theatre on August 10. Each year, the organizers plan to invite a famous musician or celebrity to join the event and create something special with the participants. "Maria Ilieva liked the idea, and soon you will see the product the children will work on, but we can't share details yet," Velinov said.

"Our quick 10-second decision talk with Mayor Dimitar Nikolov to have Burgas host the first Olympiad is just one of our many records," Marinova said. "It's a record to have 40 teams from all continents participating. Usually, international Olympiads, which started in the 1960s, began with about a dozen teams. We're starting very strong. The previous record was at the European Youth Programming Olympiad in Sofia in 2018 with 24 teams. Now we have over 40, which is really impressive. This has created a challenge for the city. During the busy season in Burgas, we've had to be creative and flexible to accommodate everyone. There are over 200 participants, and with their leaders, observers, and guests, we have more than 300 people coming from all over the world," Marinova added.

The Olympiad will have two main rounds. The first round is theoretical, involving problem-solving in areas like artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing. The event is conducted entirely in English and is the first team-based competition of its kind. Teams consist of four students who work on one or two laptops with internet access, using free software to create solutions that can be tested and explored by the public.

The second round is practical, requiring participants to create video and audio content. Once tasks are revealed, participants will have the opportunity to test their abilities and work on the tasks. The jury for this round consists of representatives from leading universities, including the University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the new University of Abu Dhabi, and the INSAIT Institute at Sofia University. Additionally, the jury includes individuals with experience from other international Olympiads in fields such as computer science and linguistics.

Building the Bulgarian national team for the Olympiad is challenging due to the lack of AI studies. This issue is not unique to Bulgaria but is a global problem. Contestants will be chosen from other competitions, including participants from the Olympiads in Informatics and Linguistics in Bulgaria.

"We will start by being very welcoming. After that, we will show that Bulgaria is already skilled at training staff and experts, which is a challenge for us," Nikolov said. He expressed hope that more students from Burgas will join the next Olympiad, especially those from the new AI programme at the Burgas Vocational School of Computer Programming and Innovation. Nikolov thanked the nearly 60 volunteers from three local schools and the International Youth Centre for making the teams' visit to Burgas special.

"Burgas serves as the starting point for the Olympiad, which will travel to different countries each year. We hope and believe that in ten years, as is the tradition, we will return to Burgas again," Marinova said. "It's hard to predict the future of the Olympiad because everything is moving so quickly. We had to update this year's tasks while still preparing them. A key piece of software we use now was not even around a year ago when we began organizing," she added.

It is important to address public concerns about rapidly developing technology through events like this. "AI offers great advantages, but people, not AI, need to deal with the moral and ethical problems," she added.