Ministry of Science and ICT Hosts the '2021 Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge'

Announcement of 3rd to 5th Competitions from August 17 to September 16
Selection of 10 Outstanding Teams, Total Follow-up Research Funding of 4.75 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 16th that it will recruit teams to participate in the main competition of the ‘2021 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Grand Challenge’ from the 17th of this month until the 16th of next month.

Since its inception in 2017, the ‘AI Grand Challenge’ has been a challenge and competition-type research and development (R&D) contest where participants compete based on voluntary preliminary research conducted to solve the presented problems. This year’s main competition is the final Open Challenge of the 3rd to 5th competitions held over four years from 2019 to 2022, allowing new challengers to participate alongside existing teams and receive follow-up research funding.

This competition will simultaneously hold three contests: the 3rd competition (2019~) Stage 3 themed ‘Understanding and Responding to Complex Disaster Situations,’ the 4th competition (2020~) Stage 3 themed ‘Solving Community Life Problems,’ and the 5th competition (2021~) Stage 2 themed ‘Solving Math Problems Using Artificial Intelligence.’

The 3rd competition Stage 3 will present an integrated problem composed of four detailed tasks to compete in comprehensive disaster response capabilities, going beyond the advanced problem-solving skills of individual intelligences developed in Stages 1 and 2. In the 4th competition Stage 3, AI models will compete under limited computational conditions to develop AI technology applicable to community environments with relatively scarce computational resources. Lastly, the 5th competition Stage 2 will increase problem difficulty compared to Stage 1 and add geometrical problems described in text, challenging participants to secure AI technology with advanced mathematical logical structures.

To assist participating teams, an online business briefing session will be held on the 25th at 2 p.m. Teams can submit letters of intent to participate through the AI Grand Challenge website and conduct voluntary preliminary research based on the announced problem definitions and technical materials.

The 5th competition Stage 2 will be held online from October 27 to 29, and the 3rd competition Stage 3 and 4th competition Stage 3 will be held online from November 10 to 12. After teams submit AI models developed through preliminary research, scoring and reproducibility verification will be conducted, followed by the announcement of final results.

Based on the competition results, a total of 10 teams will be selected: 3 teams from the 3rd competition, 4 teams from the 4th competition, and 3 teams from the 5th competition. The selected 10 teams will receive follow-up research funding of up to 475 million KRW per team (totaling approximately 4.75 billion KRW) to prepare for the final stage of the competition scheduled for November next year.

Song Kyung-hee, Director of AI Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, emphasized, “The AI Grand Challenge is a festival where AI developers can engage in healthy competition to grow to the next level. We will spare no support to ensure that this competition secures AI technologies reflecting creative problem-solving ideas from diverse participants and further serves as a foundation for revitalizing the AI ecosystem.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.