Primal Labs
Fusing vision and innovation
Primal Labs, led by Dr. Jimmy Lin—renowned AI expert and David R. Cheriton Chair in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo—integrates cutting-edge research into our applications, driving innovation through over 170 patents worldwide.
Overview
Dr. Jimmy Lin, our Chief Scientist at Primal, is also professor at the University of Waterloo, holding the prestigious David R. Cheriton Chair in the School of Computer Science, and is Co-Director of the Waterloo Data and AI Institute. With nearly 700 publications, Dr. Lin is a globally recognized leader in AI research. He also has extensive industry experience, having worked at Twitter and Cloudera, where he applied his expertise to real-world AI and big data challenges.

As Chief Scientist, Dr. Lin leads Primal Labs, ensuring we stay ahead of the evolving AI landscape and enabling us to develop top-tier solutions using the latest technologies and techniques. Our team boasts expertise in large language models, semantic knowledge representations, and various machine learning techniques.
Some of the specific areas of focus for our recent research include:
Advanced prompt engineering and agentic workflows
Complex retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines
Search relevance with dense and sparse vector representations
Semantic reranking using pointwise and listwise techniques
Automatic taxonomy induction and custom synthetic data generation
Low-effort domain adaptation and task-specific fine-tuning
Our patent landscape
Our extensive patent portfolio of over 170 patents grants us the freedom to operate across various technology, enterprise, and industry sectors, utilizing a range of technological methods.

Our innovations in knowledge graphs and data synthesis cover a broad range of areas, including enterprise content and data management, search and social networking, media and ecommerce, automation and intelligent assistants, and machine learning and analytics.
Primal Labs benefits
Cutting-edge technology
Primal Labs’ extensive research ensures the incorporation of the latest AI techniques into our solutions, providing you with state-of-the-art technology tailored to real-world challenges.
Expert led research
Composed of leading AI experts, the Primal Labs team integrates their extensive knowledge into innovative solutions, enhancing our ability to address complex problems with precision and advanced methodologies.
Next-gen advantage
By staying at the forefront of advanced technologies and techniques, Primal Labs gives your organization a significant competitive advantage, enabling you to leverage advanced solutions that drive success.
Primal Blog
Insights from the frontier of AI
Explore our freshest articles on how artificial intelligence is reshaping industries, enhancing efficiency, and unlocking innovation.
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Primal Labs
Pretrained Transformers for Text Ranking: BERT and Beyond
Learn how transformers like BERT are revolutionizing text ranking - read Dr. Jimmy Lin's research.
Jimmy Lin
September 12, 2024
6 min read
Primal Labs
A Proposed Conceptual Framework for a Representational Approach to Information Retrieval
Explore a conceptual framework that bridges dense and sparse retrieval for breakthrough search techniques.
Jimmy Lin
September 12, 2024
6 min read
Primal Labs
The Simplest Thing That Can Possibly Work: Pseudo-Relevance Feedback Using Text Classification
Discover how a simple approach to pseudo-relevance feedback outperforms complex models in search.
Jimmy Lin
September 12, 2024
6 min read
Primal Labs
Vector Search with OpenAI Embeddings: Lucene Is All You Need
Our work challenges the idea that vector stores are needed for deep neural networks in search - read more about Dr. Jimmy Lin's research.
Jimmy Lin
September 12, 2024
6 min read
Empower your future with AI
Partner with us and drive your success with next-gen technologies, industry-leading expertise, and over 170 patented innovations.
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