Bengaluru-based startup first to compete AI Facebook challenge

Team Udayavani, Dec 2, 2017, 12:15 PM IST

Bengaluru/Washington: A Bengaluru-based startup is claimed to have become the first company in the world to successfully complete a difficult 20-part challenge in Artificial Intelligence created by Facebook in 2015.

Using a unique approach, DataVal Analytics successfully completed all 20 tasks of the test, known as the (20) QA bAbi Tasks, with 100 per cent accuracy.

The test, hosted by Facebook AI Research (FAIR), assesses the ability of AI-based programs to perform text understanding and reasoning.

According to a media release, DataVal Analytics, which has its head office in Chicago but operations office in Bangalore, has been founded by veterans from the Indian Army Lt Col Shashi Kiran (Veteran) and Lt Col Naveen Xavier (Veteran). The team is mentored by the leading entrepreneur, innovator, policy maker and development thinker, Sam Pitroda as chairman.

“The Facebook test was created in 2015 and several global companies have made multiple attempts to solve TWENTY tasks. However, no one has succeeded in the past,” Pitroda said.

DataVal has developed new Natural Language Understanding Technology with focus on human way of understanding language and holistic approach to problem-solving.

It has integrated multiple processes related to language pre-processing, word sense, disambiguation, conjunction processing, proposition association, co-reference resolution and time and space analysis, he said.

“We believe this will lead to a variety of benefits in business, education, health, banking, governance, defense, manufacturing, and service sector. Along with press release, we have included a set of powerpoint slides, Bio of founders and photographs for your consideration, Pitroda said.

The success of DataVal in solving QA bAbI tasks offers hope to address a variety of AI applications related to intelligent personal assistance, search engine, voice command and control applications, social media content analysis, and expert systems in fields such as Education, Health, Energy, Environment, Transport, Finance, Manufacturing, Services and Government, the media release said.