Original author: Eric Zhang

Years ago, when I was still in college, I wrote a letter outlining my idea for a hacker community that would connect creative ideas and foster collaboration. This idea later spawned a community of enthusiasts called DoraHacks, which in turn evolved into an interesting global hackathon organizer around 2017, and has now become the platform for the world's leading hacker movement (Hacker Movement11).

Today, DoraHacks has matured into the leading platform for the global hackathon community and has achieved the two goals I set out to achieve:

1. Organizations of any size, from small open source communities to global tech giants, can easily host hackathons on DoraHacks. Most importantly, the underlying functionality has always been free and accessible to everyone.
2. It connects hackers (BUIDLers) and hackathons (technology platforms) around the world. DoraHacks eliminates the geographical limitations of the hacker community, allowing anyone, anywhere, to team up, create, and participate.

This year, the release of BUIDL AI has further accelerated this progress. Many organizers have already begun using BUIDL AI 3.0 and are benefiting from it. However, the current BUIDL AI system is still in its early stages. Therefore, now is an opportune time to share what's next for DoraHacks.

But before I begin, I want to reiterate that the fundamental reason the global hacker movement is so important is that it represents freedom for all: the freedom to create, to build and to learn. We've already ensured this freedom is unrestricted; now we need to take it to the next level. With BUIDL AI and an even more powerful DoraHacks.io platform, hackerdom will no longer be just for the top 1% of developers, but for everyone.

This is a necessary evolution. The rise of artificial intelligence and general-purpose robots means that humanity must become "hackers" to continue to control its own destiny. Otherwise, a world resembling "The Matrix," "1984," and "Battlestar Galactica" is not impossible. Becoming a hacker is the mission of all future generations— because creativity alone is humanity's true salvation.

This is the next step in DoraHacks' mission.

Building a fully autonomous hackathon AI to achieve a fully automated hackathon community

To date, DoraHacks.io is the most complete and systematic hackathon platform, as defined by the Hacker Ethos. The current BUIDL AI system (BUIDL AI 3.0) is an automation layer integrated into DoraHacks.io, and will evolve into a fully autonomous AI hackathon organizer — Hackathon AI.

For technology platforms, hackathons are the most effective way to build ecosystems; for hackers, they're the perfect scenario for high-intensity collaboration in a short period of time. BUIDL AI is more than just an automation tool—it defines the ontology of hackathons and is becoming the most powerful hackathon co-organizer for organizations of all kinds. The system architecture we designed for BUIDL AI 3.0 allows for flexible scalability. In time, the number of BUIDL AI Agents running on the DoraHacks platform will exceed that of human operators. This will significantly reduce organizational costs, making hackathons accessible to any organization worldwide.

The popularity of "Hackathon AI" will enable every organization and community on the planet to hold a hackathon - even a large number of events every year. Currently, the DoraHacks platform hosts approximately 500 hackathons each year, creates 20,000 BUIDL teams, and distributes a total of US$80 million in funding to the BUIDL community; about 3,000 organizations have joined. When BUIDL AI 3.0 is adopted by 1,000 mainstream technology platform organizations, these numbers are expected to increase tenfold - this means that there will be approximately 200,000 new BUIDL teams and 1 million hackers with real problem-solving skills and creativity each year.

However, we won’t stop at “Hackathon AI” because the most important output of the hackathon is the continuously growing BUIDL community - they ask key questions and bring new products and solutions to the world.

BUIDL AI 4.0 - Extending the hackathon lifecycle to cover and enhance the organization's DevRel capabilities

As we expand the capabilities of Hackathon AI, we're also extending the lifecycle of hackathons on DoraHacks and transforming how organizations leverage hackathons to coordinate their ecosystem development. Traditional developer relations (DevRel) concepts will evolve and be empowered by BUIDL AI 4.0 .

As we expand the hackathon lifecycle, it will encompass the complete journey of all BUIDLs created during the hackathon. In the past, organizers often lacked the tools to follow up with teams once the hackathon concluded. To achieve this, we're launching BUIDL AI 4.0, which focuses on the "second half" of the hackathon, covering the most critical and time-consuming DevRel work, helping organizations build their ecosystems more efficiently.

When DevRel is fully automated, the product iteration speed of the technology platform will be significantly improved, and the success rate of incubating the next generation of technology platforms will also increase accordingly.

According to estimates, if 10,000 organizations adopt BUIDL AI 4.0 in the future (it can run independently of 3.0 and only rely on the DoraHacks platform), and each organization connects with an average of 100 BUIDL teams, it means that 1 million new BUIDL teams will be added - this will drive 1% of the world's population to become hackers in the next 3-5 years.

BUIDL AI 5.0 - Cerebro, the platform that connects global hackers and BUIDL

The first level of connection has been achieved with Hackathon AI—enabling hackers, BUIDLs, and hackathons to interact across geographical boundaries on the platform. But the deeper level of connection lies in the continued evolution of BUIDLDoraHacks.io and its creative spirit.

The goal of DoraHacks is to build a brain center (Cerebro) for the global hacker movement.

We often tell our partners that hackathons are manifestations of the "Zeitgeist." Advances in AI mean that in the future, nearly anyone can become a hacker, as "purposeful creativity" will become the defining characteristic of humanity. At the same time, the boundary between hackers and developers is rapidly shifting. In the past, the global hacker community was a small fraction of the developer population—roughly 1% of the developer population who were motivated to create products or solve significant problems. Today, with the cost of programming and building things dropping to near zero, the hacker community may well surpass the developer community.

Like Professor X's brainwave computer, Cerebro BUIDL AI will constantly connect all BUIDLs around the world, becoming a super-partner for the global hacker community. It will provide information, inspiration, and companionship, maximizing the BUIDL's chances of success. As this network forms, BUIDL AI will become the "brain" of the global hacker movement .

So, our next steps are:

• Pushing Hackathon AI towards full unsupervised autonomy;
• Build BUIDL AI 4.0 to comprehensively enhance the developer relations (DevRel) capabilities of all platform technology organizations;
• Through Cerebro BUIDL AI, we are always connected to the global BUIDL community, enabling 1% of the world's population to become hackers.