# Minimise the Loss

*English translation by SOTA – AI Community of the Russian original. Organisers who would like this translation removed can email sota.ai.community@gmail.com.*

*Task 4 of the school stage (Moscow) of the All-Russian School Olympiad (VsOSh) 2025/26 in artificial intelligence, grades 9–11. Original: [tasks-ai-9-11-sch-msk-25-26.pdf](https://vos.olimpiada.ru/upload/files/Arhive_tasks/2025-26/school/ai/tasks-ai-9-11-sch-msk-25-26.pdf).*

Vasya was testing a model with real parameters $x$ and $y$. He found out that the loss function is given by the formula

$$
\mathcal{L}(x, y) = x^4 + y^2 + 2x^2y + 4y + 6x^2 - 4x + 14.
$$

Help Vasya determine the values of the parameters $(x^*, y^*)$ for which the value of the loss function is smallest. In your answer, give $x^*$, $y^*$ and the value $\mathcal{L}(x^*, y^*)$.

*Translator's note: the statement paper gives only the total for the olympiad (112 points); the official solutions give this task a maximum of 12 points (exact match of the answer).*