Samsung Expands SAIT AI Lab Montreal to Spur AI Research for Applying next-generation System Semiconductor

Newly inaugurated lab moved to Mila, world-renowned AI research centre, to strengthen collaboration with top authorities in deep learning

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 06 May 2019 – Samsung today announced the expansion of the ‘Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) artificial intelligence (AI) Lab Montreal’ in Canada. The Lab will help the company strengthen its fundamentals in AI research and drive competitiveness in system semiconductors.

The AI Lab is located in Mila – Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms – in Montreal, Canada. Founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio at the University of Montreal, Mila is one of the greatest research centres in the field of deep learning and has a partnership with the University of Montreal and McGill University. SAIT AI Lab Montreal has an open workspace with the aim of working closely with the AI research communities in Mila.

SAIT AI Lab Montreal will focus on unsupervised learning and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) research to develop disruptive innovation and breakthrough technologies, including new deep learning algorithms and next generation of on-device AI. To drive the effort, this AI Lab has actively recruited leaders in deep learning research, including Simon Lacoste-Julien, Professor at the University of Montreal, who recently joined as the leader of the lab. In addition, Samsung is planning to dispatch R&D personnel in its Device Solutions Business to Montreal over time and utilise AI Labs as a base for training AI researchers and collaborating with other advanced AI research institutes. On the other side, SAIT AI Lab Montreal continues to build a strong relationship with Yoshua Bengio, one of the world’s greatest experts on deep learning, machine learning, and AI. SAIT and Professor Bengio collaborated on deep learning algorithm research since 2014, successfully publishing three papers on academic journals.

Professor Yoshua Bengio said, “Samsung’s collaboration with Mila is well established already and has been productive and built strong trust on both sides. With a new SAIT lab in the midst of the recently inaugurated Mila building and many exciting research challenges ahead of us in AI, I expect even more mutually positive outcomes in the future”.

SAIT has actively pursued research collaboration with other top authorities in the field. In addition to Professor Bengio, SAIT has worked with Yann LeCun, Professor at New York University and Richard Zemel, Professor at University of Toronto. Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, along with computer scientist Geoffrey Everest Hinton won the 2018 Turing Award which is deemed the ‘Nobel Prize in computer science’.

“SAIT focuses on research and development – not only in next generation semiconductor but also innovative AI as a seed technology in system semiconductors. SAIT AI Lab Montreal will play a key role within Samsung to redefine AI theory and deep learning algorithm for the next 10 years, “said Cambridge Mokanyane, Chief Marketing Officer at Samsung South Africa.