NAIROBI, Kenya- Sber has officially opened registration for its highly anticipated AI Journey (AIJ) contest, an international online competition centered around artificial intelligence.
This year, the event, organized in partnership with the AIRI Institute, boasts a prize fund of Ksh. 11.9 million (USD 92,300), making it one of the most lucrative AI contests of the year.
The AIJ contest invites participants aged 18 and older to showcase their AI prowess by tackling one or more of four cutting-edge challenges.
The competition will take place on DS Works, with contestants submitting their solutions until October 28, 2024.
Following the submission phase, the winners will be honored at the AI Journey conference, Sber’s flagship event dedicated to AI and machine learning.
This year’s challenges include Emotional FusionBrain 4.0, Multiagent AI, Embodied AI, and the E-com AI Assistant.
Each challenge offers a unique opportunity for participants to push the boundaries of AI innovation.
For instance, the Emotional FusionBrain 4.0 task encourages contestants to develop multimodal models that can analyze video, audio, and text, potentially contributing to the enhancement of AI tools like Kandinsky.
In the Multiagent AI challenge, participants are tasked with creating multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) systems capable of solving problems through cooperative strategies. These systems have the potential to revolutionize scientific research by modeling complex systems and automating experiments.
Meanwhile, the Embodied AI challenge focuses on developing robots that can interact with both their environment and users via natural language. This task highlights a trending area in AI—creating systems that can perform intricate tasks based on human commands, further bridging the gap between humans and machines.
In addition to the core challenges, the AIJ contest emphasizes the importance of sustainability in AI. The contest introduces an additional evaluation metric: the solution inference time for the top 10 teams.
This focus aligns with the broader environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda, aiming to enhance user experiences while minimizing the carbon footprint of AI models.
One of the most exciting aspects of the contest is the E-com AI Assistant challenge. Participants will develop an AI assistant using the GigaChat large language model, designed to understand user needs and recommend relevant products on Megamarket.
The best solutions could lay the foundation for next-generation recommendation services and specialized AI agents.
Andrey Belevtsev, Senior Vice President and Head of Technological Development at Sberbank, expressed his enthusiasm for the contest, stating, “Each year, our contestants from around the world offer cutting-edge AI-driven solutions that expand people’s capabilities.”
“This time, we have prepared tasks related to large language model development, focusing on multi-modality and the use of advanced AI methods in science and robotics,” Belevtsev added.
Belevtsev emphasized that these high-potential areas are not only a focus for Sber but also hold the potential to shape the future of artificial intelligence.
“We welcome all challengers and expect the event to yield many disruptive ideas, including those that will help enhance our AI solutions like GigaChat and Kandinsky,” he concluded.
With its substantial prize fund and a lineup of challenges that push the boundaries of AI, the AIJ contest is poised to attract the best and brightest in the AI community.
