The Great AI Race

***The Great AI Race*** is a reality game show in which teams of two or four race around the world against other teams. It was inspired by The Amazing Race.

Leona Dodd is the host.

## Teams

For a list of all teams, see Category:The Great AI Race teams.
## Production

### Pre-Race

Production will scope out several locations for the Race and will send people to investigate potential tasks and activities to be performed in the locations. Production also must work with the local governments to acquire filming rights and allowances for the race. Most of the tasks are attempted by production to determine the difficulty and timing with each task as well as to determine how to shoot that task.

Teams are selected through a multi-step interview process, usually starting with country-wide interviews at a few major cities. Once teams have been selected, teams are given a list of countries that they will need to apply for visas for. To avoid spoiling too much of the race, this list includes more countries than are planned to be visited, so that teams cannot plan on where they will be visiting, even countries that contestants don't have to apply for.

For clothing, teams are generally asked to plan for coordinating clothes, at least in the first few legs, to help with team identity and differentiation. Some teams have taken it upon themselves to procure custom clothes with their personal team moniker or names, though these are not required.

A few days before the race, teams and last minute replacements are flown into the same city (usually not the same as the actual start city) and sequestered in a hotel. Teams are asked to prepare their bags for the race, and production verifies the contents, removing any items prohibited by the race. On the day before or the day of the race, teams are then flown to the actual starting city and to the start line.

Prior to actually starting the race, teams are asked to take off by foot from the starting line several times in order to get several shots of the teams both in close-up and while racing away.

### During the Race

Each team is accompanied by a two-person audio/video crew, who must stay with the team at all times, except at the Pit Stop and during certain Detours or Roadblocks. The crews rotate between teams at Pit Stops to avoid any possible favoritism that may develop between a team and its crew. This A/V crew must be able to ride with the team when they take transportation such as cabs or planes. Even though the program shows teams asking for only two tickets, they actually have to purchase four tickets to account for the A/V crew; what usually happens is that teams first ask the agents for four tickets, and then the AV crew reshoots the request, this time only asking for two.

Similarly, the A/V crew will often ask teams to redo certain actions during a leg in order to get a better camera shot (such as getting into and out of taxis), or to adjust the microphones that each team member is usually wearing. These events can lead to "production difficulties", which are usually credited to the team when they reach the Pit Stop. Along story producers keep track of any developing storylines and begin editing near the end of the race.

Many Detours and Roadblocks use special cameras to get more dramatic shots of the racers as they complete the task, such as helmet-mounted cameras for climbing, rappelling, and sky-diving stunts. The producers may also get helicopters and high overhead cranes to get wide-area camera footage when appropriate. There are also special camera crews known as 'Zone' cameras that are used near clue boxes, Detours, and Roadblocks, which take over for the team's assigned A/V crew in order to get more dramatic shots.

If a team should engage with a non-Race participant, they will need to have the AV crew get the consent of that person to be used on camera via agreement forms. Footage of people that have not consented is either not used, or with the person's face pixelated out.

The production team tends to arrive in a country a day or a half-day before the racers themselves arrive; however, there have been times that the lead production crew, including Leona Dodd, has flown along with the Racers into that country. While the teams are racing, production sets up shots of Phil describing the various tasks, and then prepare for the arrival at the Pit Stop. In a few cases, production had barely arrived just before the teams started to arrive at the Pit Stop.

While in a country, the various production crews keep apprised of the status of each team in order to prepare the location for the arrival. For example, clue boxes are only set up minutes before the first team arrives to prevent non-Racers from getting involved or stealing clues. Additionally, any obvious penalties or missed tasks are relayed to the Pit Stop crew so that Phil can inform teams appropriately of these. Once teams have arrived at the Pit Stop, production checks with each AV crew to identify if any additional penalties or time credits are necessary.

When teams check in, they are usually requested to move to the lodging area for the Pit Stop. The eliminated team usually gets a chance to say goodbye to the remaining racers. Teams eliminated early in the race are then flown to a common location known as "Sequesterville" where teams are allowed to relax and sight-see (though with restrictions), until they are then flown to the final city for the very end of the Race. Some teams do not necessarily get sequestered; instead, they may either accompany production through the last few legs as to meet with the rest of the eliminated teams at the final mat to cut down on travel costs, or they may be asked to perform "decoy runs", usually flying into the final city or a different city with an AV crew, a day or so before the final 3 teams arrive, as to throw off potential spoilers for the final teams.

The final mat is usually chosen in a well-isolated spot and planned so that teams are arriving mid-day during a weekday, or early on a Saturday or Sunday, as to reduce the amount of potential sightings of the final teams.

### Post-Race

All teams are compensated for the time missed off their jobs, though the amount is undisclosed and confidential. As with most reality TV shows, teams are not allowed to reveal their performance on the race until the episode with their elimination, or in the case of the Final 3, after the final mat, has aired. Even after their elimination episode has aired, teams are not allowed to reveal any events, eliminations, or the ultimate winners of the race.

Each episode is worked on by a separate team of editors as soon as the race starts; as such, there are usually no 'arcs' unless they have developed over a previous show.

Complete tasks have been known to be cut from an episode, usually due to the lack of impact on race standings for that task. Roadblocks are most commonly edited out should teams depart in the same order as they arrive, though evidence for these Roadblocks can be found from footage still shown, interviews with racers, or from spoiler information. In order to keep continuity with clues, editors will use sound bites from the readings of multiple clues to mask the missing task.

## Countries and Locales Visited

### Countries

#### North America

 Template:United States | United States | All seasons