Skip to content
Bring a problem

The IndexA hackathon

A hackathon

The data is reachable, nobody has to give permission, and the value shows up in the demo. Not small problems, but small first steps into big ones.

5 problems · all 20 on the Index

Ed. 1

MediaProblem 0012

Use of AI assistants for news is rising while stated trust in them stays very low: people take answers from a source they openly doubt, because it is faster than the alternative. The gap is not ignorance; it is the absence of anything that lets a reader check an answer at the moment they receive it, without abandoning it and starting a separate search.

Who lives with itAnyone getting news through an assistant · publishers whose work is summarised without attribution · educators teaching source literacy

Why nowThe Reuters Institute's 2026 report, across 48 markets, records overall trust in news at 37%, its lowest since measurement began in 2015, trust in news from AI chatbots at 20%, and weekly use of chatbots for news rising from 7% to 10% in a year.

Why it matters · the JudgeDoubt without a remedy is where trust products get built. Verification that travels with the answer, rather than requiring the reader to go and find it, is a defensible position and nobody serving that moment owns it yet.

Inspired by reporting from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

A hackathon to make a dent in
LinkedIn Send to someone
Solve it →Full problem
Ed. 1

EnergyProblem 0003

Training runs, batch inference and analytics are scheduled around deadlines and cluster availability, almost never around what electricity costs or emits at that hour. Much of this work is genuinely movable, a few hours either way or a different region entirely, but the information needed to move it lives in a different system from the scheduler, and in most organisations nothing joins them. So flexible load behaves like inflexible load.

Who lives with itPlatform and infrastructure teams · sustainability leads with compute in their inventory · grid operators courting flexible demand

Why nowThe IEA's April 2025 Energy and AI report puts data centre electricity use at around 415 TWh in 2024, about 1.5% of global consumption, and projects roughly a doubling by 2030 with accelerated servers accounting for almost half the increase: a load growing fast and, unusually for industrial demand, substantially time- and place-shiftable.

Why it matters · the JudgeA large and rapidly growing load is being treated as though it had no flexibility, when a meaningful share of it does. Making compute schedulable against grid signals is a software problem sitting between two industries that do not yet share a vocabulary.

Inspired by reporting from International Energy Agency

A hackathon to make a dent in
LinkedIn Send to someone
Solve it →Full problem
Ed. 1

LogisticsProblem 0014

Recycling a device profitably depends on knowing what it contains before you open it, and that information was never attached to it. So the pile is handled as undifferentiated waste: shredded for the few metals that survive the process, or stored, or exported. The materials the world is anxious about securing are sitting in it, and a large part of the reason they are not recovered is identification rather than chemistry.

Who lives with itRecyclers and refurbishers · manufacturers facing take-back obligations · anyone sourcing critical minerals

Why nowThe ITU and UNITAR Global E-waste Monitor 2024 recorded 62 million tonnes generated in 2022 with 22.3% formally collected and recycled, around $62 billion of recoverable materials embedded in it, and a projection to 82 million tonnes by 2030 as recycling falls further behind.

Why it matters · the JudgeA known, growing, geographically concentrated pile of valuable material where the binding constraint is knowing what is in each unit. That is a data and vision problem attached to an existing physical industry, a good place for a small team to start.

Inspired by reporting from ITU & UNITAR

A hackathon to make a dent in
LinkedIn Send to someone
Solve it →Full problem
Ed. 1

CitiesProblem 0021

"Accessible" on a listing might mean a ramp, or one step, or a lift that has been broken for a month, or a toilet being used as a storeroom. The most reliable account usually comes from another disabled person who has actually been there. That knowledge exists in enormous quantity, scattered across forums, group chats and reviews, and the maps and guides that gather it cover only part of it, each in its own terms, so it is rarely there to check before leaving the house.

Who lives with itWheelchair users and people with limited mobility · blind, deaf and neurodivergent travellers and people with hidden disabilities · carers planning a trip · venues that are accessible and cannot prove it

Why nowAccessibility information is still largely self-declared by the venue, with no shared definition of what the word covers and little route for correction when it is wrong.

Why it matters · the JudgeA sharply defined information gap with a motivated community already producing the data for free. Structure is most of the product, and the people who need it are the people best placed to build it.

Framed by Ainna editorial

A hackathon to make a dent in
LinkedIn Send to someone
Solve it →Full problem
Ed. 1

Public sectorProblem 0022

Local government publishes its decisions (planning, licensing, budgets, minutes) and publishing is where the obligation stops. They arrive as scanned documents with inconsistent names, in systems searchable only if you already know what you are looking for. A decision that changes a street is technically public and practically private.

Who lives with itResidents and neighbourhood groups · local reporters · small developers and community organisations

Why nowLocal newsrooms have continued to close in many markets, removing the layer that used to read these documents on everyone else's behalf.

Why it matters · the JudgeThe information is already public, already funded and already digital. Making it findable is a data problem rather than a political one, which is why it is tractable, and why it keeps falling between mandates.

Framed by Ainna editorial

A hackathon to make a dent in
LinkedIn Send to someone
Solve it →Full problem

The same Radar runs in your context. What you see here is the World Radar, free. Tune it to your market and it listens to the sectors, themes and geographies you set, landing every find in your portfolio, graded: that's the Team plan. Tune it to your company and it listens to your innovation agenda and to your own people: that's Enterprise. Both are private to you: nothing they find is ever published.

What the Radar finds, in your inbox. Subscribe →

5 problems. Pick one.Bring a problem

Reconnecting

Your strategic session is being restored.

Still reconnecting

This is taking longer than usual. Your work is safe.

Connection lost

We couldn't restore the connection. Your work has been preserved.

Session expired

Your session has ended. Reload to continue where you left off.