The second day of the event, hosted by Samsung Research, the advanced R&D hub of the company that leads the development of future technologies for Samsung Electronics’ Consumer Electronics division and IT & Mobile Communications division, facilitated discussion around how industry experts and academics alike can further research into AI technologies that directly impact and enhance the lives of all people. It was livestreamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel, providing opportunities for researchers and students in the AI field around the world to interact with world-renowned academics through Live Panel Discussions.

AI Forum Day 2: Exploring ‘AI’ in a Human World

Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, began his opening speech by emphasizing that “Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing every single R&D area of Samsung Research. AI technology was thought impossible, but is now becoming a reality and makes people’s lives better.”

During his speech, which introduced Samsung Research’s various areas of AI research, Dr. Seung explained how on-device AI technology is enabling smartphone cameras to offer users new ways to express their creativity and manage other devices such as TVs and air conditioners. He also provided insights into other applications for AI technology, which includes enabling robot vacuums to automatically create indoor 3D maps, detect obstacles and clean a space accordingly.

Dr. Seung concluded his speech by describing his excitement to see what Samsung’s researchers would be presenting and inviting participants to follow Samsung Research’s Twitter account to learn more about the innovative research that the R&D hub is conducting.

Seung’s speech was followed by presentations from world-renowned AI experts who are leading research in their respective fields.

First, Professor Leslie Valiant of Harvard University, the recipient of the 2010 Turing Award – often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing – delivered the day’s keynote lecture, entitled “How to Augment Supervised Learning with Reasoning”. Using robust logic as an example, Professor Valiant emphasized that combining supervised learning and reasoning should be a key focus for the next generation of machine learning technology.

Professor Valiant’s keynote was followed by a presentation from Professor Felix Heide of Princeton University. Professor Heide’s presentation, entitled “The Differentiable Camera”, discussed the camera technology that utilizes deep learning to enhance image quality.

Next, research scientist Been Kim of Google Brain delivered a presentation entitled “Interpretability for Skeptical Minds”, in which she shared the latest advancements in interpretable machine learning and proposed directions that this cutting-edge technology should be heading.

The last session of the day was led by Professor Max Welling, a research chair in machine learning at the University of Amsterdam and a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research. During his presentation, entitled “Understanding Matter With Deep Learning”, Professor Welling shared why he is so excited about the scientific breakthroughs that will come from utilizing deep learning in molecular simulation.

Other highlights of Day 2 included a Lightning Talks session, which saw engineers from Samsung Research’s Global AI Center present some of their latest research, and a live panel discussion that was moderated by Dr. Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research Global AI Center.

In case you missed it, you can watch a full replay of day two of the Samsung AI Forum 2021 by heading to Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Pavel Ostyakov, one of the researchers from SAIC-Moscow, won first place among 110 teams in the “Inclusive Images Challenge,” a Kaggle¹ competition hosted by Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2018, which took place in Montreal, Canada from December 3^rd to the 8^th. NeurIPS, formerly known as NIPS, is the world’s largest conference in the field of AI and machine learning. In 2017, over 8,000 researchers and scientists attended the event. In addition to those in machine learning and neuroscience research, experts from many related fields such as cognitive science, computer vision, statistical linguistics, and information theory actively participate in the conference. Winning the challenge at this prestigious event was a significant achievement for both Pavel and Samsung. Pavel was also named a Kaggle Grandmaster, which is the highest tier possible for contributors, and is currently ranked as one of the world’s top five scientists on Kaggle.

In the “Inclusive Images Challenge,” participants developed image recognition and classifier models that can successfully perform image classification tasks even when the test images are geographically and culturally different from the previously shown images in the provided dataset.

(Left image, from left) Pavel Ostyakov, a Researcher at Samsung AI Center-Moscow (SAIC-Moscow), and Jin Wook Lee, the Head of Samsung R&D Institute Russia. (Right image) A snapshot of SAIC-Moscow’s opening ceremony, which took place in May of this year

For example, an image classifier may fail to properly apply “wedding” related labels, such as “bride,” “groom,” and “celebration,” to an image, if a couple is not wearing traditional western European wedding attires or colors. This challenge attempts to address the biases in previously existing algorithms and classifier models. Through the challenge, researchers can identify ways to teach image classifiers to generalize the accumulated data and apply them in new geographic and cultural contexts. The expectation is that the scientific community will make even more progress in inclusive machine learning that benefits everyone, everywhere.

Such competitions reflect the movement towards realization of ethical and non-discriminatory AI, which also aligns with Samsung’s goal and vision. To this end, Samsung has recently joined the Partnership on AI (PAI) to take part in the development of inclusive, fair, and responsible AI technology.

Last September, the SAIC-Moscow team also participated in “The 2nd YouTube-8M Video Understanding Challenge,” hosted by the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) 2018. ECCV is one of the world’s top research conferences in the area of computer vision, held biennially. In this Kaggle competition, researchers were provided with public YouTube-8M training and validation datasets that consist of millions of videos with labels, and then asked to develop classification algorithms to accurately predict the labels for 700,000 previously unseen YouTube videos. The SAIC-Moscow team utilized a unique approach in its complex model and data analysis, taking second place by a very narrow margin.

An exterior view of the White Square Business Center, where SAIC-Moscow is located

“We love these competitions because they provide us with opportunities to measure ourselves against the best in the AI industry,” said Pavel Ostyakov at SAIC-Moscow. “Researchers at Samsung are obsessed with making AI a part of everyday lives. So, it is exciting to take part in the challenges where we can contribute our skills to develop the technology.”

The global AI centers reflect Samsung’s commitment to next-generation AI development. Besides Russia, there are six others located across the globe – Korea, Silicon Valley and New York in the U.S., Toronto and Montreal in Canada, and Cambridge, the U.K. Each location is conducting research, focused on a different area of unique strengths. These AI centers are playing a pivotal role in realizing Samsung’s vision for human-centric AI technologies and products.

¹An online community allowing users to find and publish datasets, explore and build models in a web-based data-science environment, work with others, and enter competitions to solve data science challenges.

Founded in 2016, PAI is a technology industry consortium that conducts research and discussion, shares insights, provides thought leadership, identifies new areas for AI application, and creates informational materials to advance the understanding of AI technologies. The organization currently has more than 70 partners, including major global companies and human rights groups specializing in AI.

Acknowledging the rapid development and aiming to positively impact the future of AI technologies, Samsung joined PAI to shape the direction of AI development along with global member companies. As a member of PAI, Samsung will join one of its working groups, Collaboration Between People and AI Systems¹, and research possible collaboration between humans and AI. The company also plans to participate in research on topics including safety, transparency, and the social and economic impacts of AI.

“Samsung is dedicated to producing AI products and services that are reliable and safe for people and beneficial to society,” said Seunghwan Cho, Executive Vice President of Samsung Research, the advanced R&D arm of Samsung Electronics’ device business. “As a member of the PAI, Samsung will strive to facilitate ongoing progress of artificial intelligence and develop best practices on AI technologies.”

Samsung now has a network of seven Global AI Centers in Seoul, Silicon Valley, New York, Cambridge, Moscow, Toronto and Montreal.

¹ PAI has working groups in six major research fields: Safety-Critical AI, Fair, Transparent and Accountable AI, AI, Labor and the Economy, Collaborations Between People and AI, Social and Societal Influences of AI, AI and Social Welfare.

Today’s announcement complements earlier news of multiple AI centers launched in North America and continues Samsung’s efforts in AI that include the development of Samsung’s virtual assistant, Bixby. The center is the fourth Samsung AI Center to be established in North America following the centers launched in Silicon Valley, New York and Toronto.

The opening of the AI center in Montreal will allow Samsung to expand its outpost for industry collaboration and talent recruitment in a major AI hub in Canada, dedicated to research and development of core AI technologies that entail machine learning, language, vision and other multi-modal interactions.

At the opening event, there were about 100 guests in attendance including Marc Garneau, Canada’s Minister of Transportation; Philippe Tomlinson, mayor of Outremont and member of Montreal’s Development Commission; Seunghwan Cho, Executive Vice President of Samsung Research; Geunbae Lee, Head of Samsung AI Center in Seoul and Larry Heck, Head of AI Centers for Samsung Research America.

“By leveraging the power of AI in Samsung’s products and services, we must focus on creating new values, never seen nor experienced before,” said Seunghwan Cho. “To do this, seven Global AI Centers, including the Montreal AI Center, will play a pivotal role.”

During the event, Samsung presented its future vision for AI as it aims to develop a highly personalized multi-device platform that empowers people to accomplish more in their lives. By providing multiple touchpoints where a user can interact with AI, not only through voice, Samsung’s multi-modal interaction platform (voice, vision, screen, touch) will make experiences more relevant and personal in the future.

“One key element that will move AI to being more widely adopted is multi-device systems—i.e., a variety of AI-enabled devices that communicate seamlessly with each other,” said Dr. Heck. “Samsung is uniquely positioned to be a leader in this regard. It’s not just how each device uses AI, it’s how they use it together.”

Key contributing factors for the location include the availability of key AI talent, including leading AI researchers at McGill University and the University of Montreal who have had longstanding relationships with Samsung. Greater Montreal has emerged as a powerhouse in AI research, housing 250 researchers and 9000 university students in related programs. Establishing an AI Center in Greater Montreal also enables Samsung to better collaborate with regional start-ups and expand the current ecosystem.

“This new research Center will help make artificial intelligence more accessible right here in Montreal. It will open the door for collaboration and grow opportunities for our universities and our businesses,” said Minister Garneau.

The mayor of Montreal also celebrated the news. “Montreal is a vibrant and creative city with well-known academic institutions and some of the highest standards in quality of life allowing us to attract some of the best talents around the world. Samsung’s AI Center reinforces Montreal’s unique position and reputation as a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence. Their work with faculties, students, and the broader academic community highlights the city’s international reach and the strengths of a business ecosystem that is firmly focused on collaboration, research and innovation,” said Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal International.

Dr. Gregory Dudek, Head of the Montreal AI Center

Dr. Gregory Dudek, of the McGill University School of Computer Science and an expert in a wide range of AI technologies from machine learning to human-robot interactions, will lead the Montreal AI Center. “We are excited to open a new Samsung AI Center in Montreal, which will conduct research in machine learning and robotics enabled multi-modal interactions,” said Dr. Dudek. “As the second AI research facility in Canada, we plan to research in tandem with the Toronto AI Center, established in May, and leverage the tremendous AI talent in Montreal. We are also looking forward to collaborating with the top universities and academic institutions in the region.”

Earlier this year, Samsung has announced plans to expand its advanced AI research capabilities to 1,000 by 2020 when all Samsung products and services are expected to be AI enabled. The global AI Centers, which are also located in Korea, Russia, and the U.K, will contribute to Samsung’s AI research with their unique regional strengths, and Samsung plans to expand its AI research centers to other technology and talent-rich areas.