Fast Company Names Sama a 2020 World Changing Ideas Finalist in AI and Data

Since our founding in 2008, we’ve been driven by the idea that through technology, we can make the world a better place. Ever since, our team has continuously broken barriers as we became the trusted, high-quality training data and validation provider for 25% of the Fortune 50 companies.Thanks to our team’s dedication to providing high quality training data and trustworthy technology, we’re honored that Fast Company has recognized us as a finalist in the AI and Data category as part of their 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards.

“This recognition is a testament to our commitment to using technology to fuel positive impacts on our world,” says Wendy Gonzalez, President and Interim CEO of Sama. “We’re humbled to have received this recognition from Fast Company. This award further validates our industry-leading software technology and our team’s efforts to ensure only the highest quality standards.”Fast Company recognized us as a finalist for our work with Vulcan, a project and investment company using data to make a positive impact on endangered species, climate change, ocean health, and more. Image recognition technology plays an important role in wildlife conservation and through our work together, we created an AI solution that was able to record and monitor African wildlife and threats of poaching, human-wildlife conflict and loss of habitat. Through that technology, we were able to combat large-scale poaching that contributes to extinction to support a more sustainable ecosystem. To date, we’ve labeled nearly one million images for Vulcan, achieving above industry-standard quality in support of their efforts.

“There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources, and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”The World Changing Ideas Awards is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions from a pool of 3,000 this year and based their decisions on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.We’re thankful to everyone who has made an impact and provided guidance to Sama - our teams, investors, customers and community - this award acknowledges us all.Head this way to check out the complete list of companies featured in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas.