Mountain View, CA, January 18, 2018 — Samsung welcomed participants to its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit on January 16-17, hosted by Samsung Research America at Mountain View that brought together more than 300 leading academics, technical experts, and university students. The event explored ways to accelerate AI research and to understand the best commercial applications of AI.

“AI and machine learning are major strategic imperatives for Samsung. There’s no doubt that, in the coming years, these technologies will completely change the way people interact with every device in their lives, from phones and wearables to home appliances and cars,” said Young Sohn, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung Electronics, and Chairman of the Board at HARMAN. “For this to happen, we believe AI must be open—so we can harness the talent and expertise of a vast ecosystem of companies, and ultimately give consumers smarter, simpler, more meaningful interactions with the devices they love. This Summit underscores our commitment to an open, collaborative AI ecosystem, and serves as a call to action for all researchers and entrepreneurs who share our vision for a more connected world.”

Samsung’s AI Summit opened with a keynote by the company’s Senior Vice President of AI Research, Dr. Larry Heck, a world-renowned leader in AI and voice recognition who has led AI teams at Microsoft, Google and Nuance. During his talk, Dr. Heck outlined the need for increased industry collaboration to drive broader adoption and consumer confidence in AI technology. He also advocated for the importance of making AI open to 3rd parties.

“This is an incredible time in our industry. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are becoming mainstream, used by millions each year. Yet, we need more collaboration in the industry—from companies to academics and researchers—to let AI flourish,” said Dr. Heck. “It’s time for us to find new ways to work together to ensure AI serves the needs of people first and foremost.” As a part of this collaborative effort, Samsung plans to host many more AI-related events around the globe this year.

Dr. Heck also shared Samsung’s plans to tap its massive device ecosystem to learn user preferences and needs. “Under a common architecture, Samsung’s AI platform will not only scale quickly, but will also provide the deepest understanding of usage context and behaviors, making AI more relevant and useful,” he said. Attendees at the event also heard from experts at Google, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and the University of California at Berkeley.

In November 2017, Samsung announced the creation of a new AI Research Center dedicated to applied research and development in the space. Samsung’s new AI research center plans to open additional AI research labs in Canada, the UK and Russia in 2018 to strengthen the company’s AI research efforts.