Samsung Electronics announced human-centered artificial intelligence as the direction of its research and development on AI and introduced ongoing projects at its annual AI forum on Tuesday.

Sebastian Seung, president and head of Samsung Research, said, “Today’s theme, human-centered AI, is in line with Samsung’s vision to make products and services that further enrich people’s life.”

The research chief introduced the institution’s projects in the fields of vision and graphics, speech and language, robotics, on-device AI, and health and wellness.

Seung is a renowned AI scholar from Princeton University. He was scouted and promoted by Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong this year.

“We will need to ponder over how to develop AI to induce changes in people’s behaviors and improve our lives to make a better world,” Seung said.

The Samsung forum took place virtually for the first time amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The online forum included AI experts from around the world, including professor Christopher Manning of Stanford University, professor Dvi Parikh of Georgia Institute of Technology, professor Subbarao Kambhampati of Arizona State University and Vice President Daniel D. Lee of Samsung Research New York AI Center.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)