Samsung scores big wins in Global AI Machine Reading Comprehension Challenges

It has been said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be the next great frontier in the field of human knowledge and endeavour and Samsung Research, the company’s R&D arm has trailblazed a path to better AI by taking on, and succeeding in two of the world’s most challenging Global AI Machine Reading Comprehension Challenges – MS MARCO and TriviaQA.

An acronym for MAchine Reading COmprehension, the MS MARCO test by MS Microsoft and the TriviaQA test hosted by the University of Washington are among the most actively used and research machine reading comprehension competitions on the planet.

While many AI are able to read text to some degree, understanding the nuances and context of it are a challenge as it infers on knowledge and experience an AI may not necessarily possess or which may be reliant on other external factors. The aforementioned challenging tests pit AI algorithms in proverbial gauntlets where their ability to process natural language in questions and answers – effectively how one person would ask questions and answer another – and also offering legible written answers to written documents of differing nature are put to the test.

Samsung Research succeeded in the arduous tests with their ConZNet algorithm that employs a stick-and-carrot strategy towards a machine intelligence so as to enhance viable outcomes while taking into account natural language for queries and answers online.

“Artificial Intelligence is the way forward and the future of how we experience the world. Our R&D team has done truly outstanding work in the development of its AI technologies, as proven when Samsung Research was ranked first in the MS MARCO competition and won ‘Best Performance’ in TriviaQA. Although there is still much to be researched and developed, this is the right step forward toward creating an efficient world assisted by smart AI,” said Yoonsoo Kim, President of Samsung Malaysia Electronics.

Advanced AI algorithms like ConZNet devised by Samsung Research hold immense promise in powering future generations of smartphones

While successful in the MS MARCO and TriviaQA tests, there’s still a long road ahead to where AI can be relied upon  and used in a more ubiquitous fashion in day to day life. At present, the advances achieved by Samsung Research hold immense promise with direct applications in Samsung’s other products, chief among them their smartphones and white goods as well as online chatbots which can help in minimising manpower usage or acting as intelligent user agents to address queries by staff or customers.