Group comes close to winning $1M Netflix prize

June 29, 2009 By BARBARA ORTUTAY , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- A multinational group of researchers, scientists and engineers are close to winning a $1 million prize from Netflix.

The online movie rental company had launched a contest in 2006 improve its recommendations by at least 10 percent.

On Friday, the team submitted its solution for the Netflix Prize, improving its predictions by 10.05 percent. This kicks off a 30-day period during which other contestants can submit their best work.

The group, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos, consists of four teams who've decided to collaborate for the prize. It includes researchers at AT&T Inc., engineers from Montreal, a research scientist at Yahoo Inc. and two Austrians.

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