The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) is an International Science Olympiad in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). IOAI is a team competition for high school students - each country or territory participates with up to two teams, consisting of up to four students, supported by one leader. The first IOAI was held in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2024.
The IOAI consists of three contests: the individual contest, the team challenge, and the GAITE contest.
Awards distribution: roughly 50% of the participants in the individual contest receive gold, silver and bronze medals in ratio of 1:2:3, respectively. The top 3 individuals receive honorary trophies. Similar to other International Science Olympiads, if an individual is in the top 50% on one of the days, but does not receive a medal, they receive an honorary mention during the awards ceremony. The GAITE contest has similar cutoff logic, but receives a reward instead of a medal. The top 3 teams in the team challenge receive trophies.
As an AI Olympiad, IOAI is actively engaged in discussions with the general public about the ethical aspects and the future of AI, primarily through its practical round and conference. At the IOAI conference teams and guests of the Olympiad have the opportunity to attend lectures and participate in practical sessions on current topics in artificial intelligence.
The IOAI was founded by the LERAI Foundation, with members Lora Dineva, Elena Marinova, Rositsa Dekova, Aleksandar Velinov, and Iva Gumnishka. The Olympiad collaborates with renowned scientists from leading universities to develop its competition tasks. IOAI's partners and sponsors include institutions, NGOs, and companies worldwide.
The current IOAI board consists of:
The 1st IOAI took place in Burgas, Bulgaria, from August 9 to 15, 2024. The event featured nearly 200 students from 32 countries and territories from 6 continents, organized into 41 teams. In the team challenge, the students worked in the space of AI and art, creating a single cover and video for the remix of the song "Love" by Bulgarian singer Maria Ilieva.
The 2nd IOAI was held in Beijing, China, from August 2 to 9, 2025. The event featured nearly 300 students from 54 different countries and territories. In the team challenge, teams were tasked to program a robot to organize a warehouse.
In the individual contest, several delegations achieved notably strong results. Russia secured the highest number of gold medals and placed multiple contestants near the top of the overall individual rankings. Poland, India, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam also earned multiple gold medals in the individual contest. Singapore and Romania achieved high overall medal counts despite relatively small delegations.
At the lower end of the individual rankings, a number of delegations recorded multiple low placements. Countries with several contestants appearing near the bottom of the individual rankings included Australia, Albania, Rwanda, Benin, and Tunisia, none of which secured medals in the individual contest.
The 3rd International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from August 2 to 8, 2026.
For the 2027 International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad, Singapore, has been chosen as the host city.
2024, founding countries and territories:
Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Estonia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Isle of Man, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Letovo, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vietnam.