Anti-Slopathon
Are you tired of seeing ugly?
The good news: A bright, capable, resourceful non-technical person can now stand up a full-stack custom website connected to a database in a handful of hours. We’re all thriving in our building, hacking, shipping eras.
The less good news: A lot of our apps now look the same. Common denominator dashboards are functional, sure, but we are people. And people like to engage with thoughtful, beautifully designed products with precise messaging.
Many essays have been written about this.
TL;DR - Treat what you ship as a gift to others.
The Anti-Slopathon — where form is weighted equally with function. Use AI to build your tools, games, features, and experiences. But show us how you’ve listened to your user and applied taste and design judgment.
Official hacking hours run 1pm–8:30pm, but if you’ve already been building and want in on the prizes, we reward initiative. Extra-credit behavior is encouraged.
Technologists know the hackathon format. We’re also opening the doors to creatives, digital makers, and artists across NYC who are curious about integrating AI into their workflows. This city thrives on overlap and we’re excited to host a friendly competition where technologists and artists collide.
Judges so far include exited health-tech startup founder, wildly successful indie game developer, founding engineer at applied AI company.
Winners will receive ....
A free copy of the aforementioned indie game
+ other prizes to be finalized
All participants will receive a waiver for one free visa filed by Ellis. (Limited to H1B, TN, H1B1, and E3. If you're interested in other visa types, reach out, let's talk)
Thank you to our host and sponsors!
Ellis is a high-tech, high-touch immigration law firm offering premier immigration support for startups and growing companies.
Build has created the agentic AI stack for institutional real estate development, automating complex development workflows 90% faster than humans to accelerate the world’s most important built projects - digital infrastructure, energy, industrial - from concept to completion.
Veris AI accelerates agent development with a simulation sandbox that delivers robust, compliant AI systems at speed.
FAQ
What is “slop”?
Repetitive patterns produced by AI - work that technically functions but feels generic, unfinished, or thoughtless.
Can I use AI?
Absolutely, we encourage it. But know where to flex AI’s capabilities versus your own.
Do I need a team?
No you do not need a team to enter, team sizes will range from 2-4. Come early enough to meet your team members day of.
Do I need to know how to use AI already?
Nope, there will be technical volunteers scattered about who are happy to help you get started and answer any questions.