With increasing popularity in research studies about future AI technology, there is an even higher expectation that AI will bring more value to our daily lives. On November 8 and 9, Samsung Electronics hosted the Samsung AI Forum 2022 to share the progress of AI research and explore more ways for the industry to advance. World-renowned scholars and experts who attended this year’s forum focused on hyperscale AI, an AI model that can evolve to the human level of thinking by processing massive amounts of data.

Samsung Newsroom met with Vice President Joohyung Lee at Samsung Research’s¹ Global AI Center to hear more about the main topics discussed during the second day of the forum, which Samsung Research hosted. Learn more about upcoming technology trends and the future vision of AI research introduced by Samsung Research in the infographic below.

​¹ Samsung Research, acting as Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division.

Now in its sixth year, Samsung AI Forum will be held from November 8 to 9 (KST). This is the first time in three years that the event will be held in person. With over 1,200 attendees expected to join, this global forum provides a packed program hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)¹ on November 8 and Samsung Research² on November 9.

The event will also be livestreamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Day One: Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductors

Under the theme of “Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductor,” AI experts gathered to discuss the future direction of AI research that will create new milestones in AI-based semiconductor and material innovation.

The day started with opening remarks by Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. “I expect that AI technology will provide better convenience and new experiences for all while it also lays the foundation for other key innovations to various fields and applications, including next-generation semiconductors,” said Han.

Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Canada, shared his latest research in a keynote presentation, “Why We Need Amortized, Causal and Bayesian World Models.” He emphasized the use of amortized inference and the Bayesian approach in causal models for AI that explores theories and design experiments in the field of science and general AI.

Afterward, technology sessions, such as “AI for R&D Innovation,” “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms” and “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC” were delivered.

In the “AI for R&D Innovation” session, research leaders at SAIT, including the Executive Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI Research Center, Changkyu Choi, shared the status and vision of Samsung’s research on AI. Specifically, they discussed how AI technology will be influential in fields including semiconductors and material development.

In a session named “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms,” Minjoon Seo, a professor at KAIST, and Hyunoh Song, a professor at Seoul National University, delivered presentations on the latest research achievements on AI algorithms, including large language model-based interface for ultra-accurate semantic search.

Lastly, in a session called “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC,” leading researchers on supercomputers, including the former IBM and Intel Fellow, Alan Gara, discussed the role of AI in the future of high-performance computing. They also introduced an insightful case on processing-in-memory, an innovative technology that is enabled by the development of next-generation supercomputers.

Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards, which were established to discover excelling rising researchers in the field of AI, were also presented during the forum. Samsung AI Researcher of the Year was awarded to five AI researchers, including Professor Mohit Iyyer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

In addition, various programs, including poster presentations of excellent research papers, an introduction of SAIT, an exhibition of its research projects and networking event for researchers and students in the field of AI, were held to accelerate active research in AI.

Day Two: Scaling AI for the Real World

Under the theme of “Scaling AI for the Real World,” Day 2 of the forum hosted by Samsung Research will be a venue for sharing the development direction of future AI technologies that will significantly affect our lives, including hyperscale AI, digital human, robotics, etc., that have become hot topics.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, will give a keynote on the “first steps of an effort to improve upon classical brain theories by optimizing biologically plausible unsupervised learning algorithms” together with a welcoming remark.

Following a presentation on the “Current Status of AI Research by Samsung Research” given by Daniel D. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Global AI Center at Samsung Research, AI experts, including the heads of global research centers who have recently conducted active research will be invited to the stage as speakers.

Professor Terrence Sejnowski at the University of California San Diego, U.S., who found NeurIPS, the world’s most prestigious AI conference, will discuss the intelligence of hyperscale language models based on experimental cases testing whether hyperscale language models have intelligence.

This will be followed by an introduction of the next-generation AI research direction for ensuring the responsible and fair use of hyperscale AI in the products and services of businesses presented by Dr. Johannes Gehrke, Head of Microsoft Research Lab.

Next, Professor Dieter Fox at the University of Washington, U.S., who is also the Senior Director of Robotics Research at NVIDIA, will explain how a robot can directly operate unlearned objects only based on visual data without creating 3D models. He will also discuss how to use natural language commands to effectively instruct a robot to carry out various operations.

Lastly, Seungwon Hwang, a professor at Seoul National University, will discuss ways to use causality, evidentiality, and other forms of knowledge to further strengthen hyperscale language models.

There will be two live panel discussions moderated by EVP Daniel Lee, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, in which panelists will discuss various topics. There will also be Lightning Talk sessions in which researchers at the Global AI Center will give presentations on the details of their current research.

In the Lightning Talks session, Vice President Joohyung Lee at Global AI Center will discuss ways to use hyperscale AI models to combine the external appearance of a digital human with internal intelligence. SangHa Kim will also explain a machine translation technology that allows users to use various Samsung products with no language barrier.

In addition, participants will have opportunities to look at several demos and research posters produced by Global AI Center at the booth, where they can personally interact with the researchers.

Furthermore, on the forum’s website, speakers and participants can freely communicate in Korean and English on the Q&A Bulletin Board, where Samsung Research’s translation service “SR Translate” is applied.

¹ Samsung’s R&D hub dedicated to cutting-edge future technologies.
² Samsung Research, acting as Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division.

The Samsung AI Forum, now in its sixth year, is a place for exchanging technological advances with world-renowned AI scholars and experts, sharing the latest AI research achievements and exploring future research direction.

This year’s forum will be held in-person for the first time in three years and will also be live-streamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Those who are interested in the event can register to participate in the forum from October 18 to the day of the event on the Samsung AI Forum website. Registered participants will be able to receive a detailed program agenda and submit questions online.

Day One: Shaping the Future With AI and Semiconductor

Day one will be hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) under the theme “Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductor.” Participants will discuss the current status and research direction on AI that will lead the future of innovations in other fields including semiconductors and materials.

Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics, will start the forum by giving the opening remarks, followed by a keynote speech from Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Canada. Afterward, technology sessions, such as “AI for R&D Innovation,” “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms” and “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC” will be held.

During each technology session, renowned AI experts and the AI research leaders at SAIT will be on stage to share their findings. Minjoon Seo, Professor at KAIST, and Hyunoh Song, Professor at the Seoul National University, will introduce the latest research achievements on AI algorithms, and the former IBM and Intel Fellow Alan Gara, who is one of the leading researchers on supercomputers, will make a presentation on the evolution of computing and the future of AI. AI research leaders at SAIT including Changkyu Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI Research Center, will share the status and vision of Samsung’s research on AI.

“This year’s AI forum will be prepared to be a place to discuss the direction of AI research to create a better future by applying AI technology to various fields, especially semiconductor, in the future.” said Gyo-Young Jin, President and the Head of SAIT as well as Co-chair of the Samsung AI Forum.

The Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards, which were established to discover excelling rising researchers in the field of AI, will also be presented during the forum. In addition, various programs, including poster presentations of excellent research papers, introduction of the SAIT, exhibition of its research projects and networking event for researchers and students in the field of AI will be held to accelerate active research in AI.

Day Two: Scaling AI for the Real World

Day two of the forum will be hosted by Samsung Research under the theme “Scaling AI for the Real World.” Participants will share the direction of future AI technological advancement that will have an important impact on our lives, such as hyperscale AI, digital human and robotics technology, which are the latest trending topics.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, will start with a welcoming remark and a keynote speech on “Evolutionary approach to brain-inspired learning algorithms.”

Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research’s Global AI Center, will give a presentation on current status of Samsung Research’s AI research, which will be followed by invited talks by AI experts, including the heads of Global Research Institutes.

Terrence Sejnowski, Professor at the University of California — San Diego and founder of NeurIPS (The Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems), one of the most prestigious international conferences on AI, will speak on whether large language models have intelligent, and Dr. Johannes Gehrke, Head of Microsoft Research Lab, will explain the core technology of hyperscale AI and research directions of Microsoft’s next-generation AI.

Afterwards, Dieter Fox, Senior Director of Robotics Research at NVIDIA, will give a presentation on robot technology that controls objects without an explicit model and Seungwon Hwang, Professor at the Seoul National University, will share knowledge on robust natural language processing technology.

Furthermore, Daniel Lee will moderate the panel discussion on the latest AI trends and the future outlook with fellow speakers. There will also be times allotted for presentation and demonstration of the latest research status by the researchers at Samsung Research’s AI Research Center.

“This year’s Samsung AI Forum will be a place for participants to better understand various AI researches currently underway in terms of ‘Scaling AI for the Real World’ to increase the value of our lives,” said Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. “We hope many people, who are interested in the field of AI, will participate in this year’s forum, which will be held both online and in person.”