Sama Recognized as Best AI Model Validation Solution in 2024 AI Breakthrough Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26, 2024 - Sama, the leader in providing data annotation, supervised fine-tuning and model evaluation solutions for artificial intelligence (AI), today announced it has been named the Best AI Model Validation Solution by the annual AI Breakthrough Awards, which recognize the breakthrough companies, technologies, products and services in the field of AI around the world. 

“Sama proves every day that it is possible to be both a trusted partner in model validation and a company that takes a responsible and ethical approach to AI. We’re honored to be recognized by the AI Breakthrough Awards for our commitment to doing right by our customers and doing right by our people,” said Wendy Gonzalez, CEO of Sama. “We offer our congratulations to the other honorees and cannot wait to see what we all can accomplish with our innovative takes on AI.” 

The AI Breakthrough Awards, now in their seventh year, received more than 5,000 applications this year across a number of different categories, including Generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs) and industry applications. Other winners this year include NVIDIA, CrowdStrike, Adobe, SoundHound, AMD, rabbit, Qualcomm, Lenovo, SAP, Verint, Honeywell, IBM watsonx, Sony AI, BMC, Zoox, Alteryx, Juniper Networks, Dell, OpenAI and Groq. 

Sama was specifically recognized for helping customers bring higher-performing computer vision and generative AI models to market 3x faster by eliminating delays associated with curating and labeling training data along with validating model performance. The company’s specialized model evaluation and red teaming solutions for GenAI and LLMs were another major factor in its win. 

By layering human feedback with proprietary algorithms that proactively surface potential issues, Sama can offer one of the highest acceptance rate guarantees in the industry. The company consistently averages a 99% client acceptance rate per batch across 10B points per month. 

Recently, the company announced the development of a specialized solution for medium- and long-length sequence annotation for autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) models. To date, Sama has successfully used its proprietary method with medium-length sequences of up to tens to hundreds of miles of contiguous driving and is working to further scale the solution. This method reduces total costs of ownership on complex automotive data for four of the five top OEMs and their Tier 1 suppliers globally. 

Sama is a registered public benefit corporation, reflecting its commitment to responsible AI development practices. Much of Sama’s workforce, including the majority of annotators and quality analysts, is based in East Africa, specifically Kenya and Uganda. For many, work at Sama is their first formal employment and often the first time they earn a living wage that can lead to stronger financial stability.  Since 2008, Sama has helped lift more than 65,000 people out of poverty. 

Sama’s work contributes to creating a more ethical and responsible AI supply chain for companies around the world. The company regularly evaluates and updates its responsible AI policies and governance practices, following the guidance and oversight of its Ethics Guild. Furthermore, global standards on sustainability and environmental stewardship, human rights, health, safety and business ethics standards are embedded into the company’s policies and practices. To learn more about Sama’s focus on high-quality services while promoting ethical AI practices, please visit the Why Sama? page on Sama’s website.