San Francisco billboard challenge puts AI engineers to the test

On a quiet San Francisco street, a plain white billboard seemed to appear out of nowhere. KPIX via CNN Newsource

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- On a quiet San Francisco street, a plain white billboard seemed to appear out of nowhere. No logo, no tagline, just five strings of numbers. Was it an ad? An art project? Or something else entirely?

“It was a moment of desperation,” he said.

Alfred Wahlforss, cofounder and CEO of a small startup called Listen Labs, had a big problem: how to compete for artificial intelligence engineers against Silicon Valley giants.

“We’re hiring over 100 people over the next few months and there are empty spots, but we can’t fill them because Mark Zuckerberg is giving US$100 million offers to the best engineers,” he said.

So they did something off the wall, spending a fifth of their marketing budget, about $5,000, on a billboard.

To most, it looked like gibberish. To the right eyes, a coding challenge. Solve it and you land on a website and face the real test, build an algorithm to act as a digital bouncer at Berghain, the Berlin nightclub famed for its nearly impossible door policy.

Quirky, sure? But for Listen Labs, the bouncer challenge was a metaphor for their own work, using AI to decide who gets interviewed for market research and who doesn’t.

They expected a few engineers might notice. Then someone posted it online and the puzzle went viral.

“Were you surprised by the reaction? It was wild,” he said.

Within days, thousands took a shot. 430 have cracked it, among them Alex Nicita, a software consultant from New York.

“It was very fun to go through, solve the challenge and reach the top of the leader board,” he said.

Now he’s in the interview round, and yes, some of these code breakers have already been hired.

In the end, 60 people made the cut, including the winner who scored a night at Berghain, all expenses paid.

“It’s a reminder to take risks and do something unique and different and extra extraordinary things happen,” Wahlforss said.