Student entrepreneurs believe artificial intelligence is integral to spurring a new age of innovation in the United States after submitting award-winning ideas for a national collegiate competition marking the country’s semiquincentennial.

Five students from across the country spoke with the Washington Examiner after being declared among the winners of America250’s startup contest and $25,000 prizes. Lukas Garcia, Sanjana Kavula, Adhira Tippur, Leo Guan, and Ayush Banerjee all crafted novel systems built on AI models designed to do everything from onshoring advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing to streamlining operations at healthcare clinics. They expressed hope that AI is democratizing and accelerating innovation in America, framing the technology as “analogous to the dot-com revolution.”