Facebook is targeting innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, creating a research lab exclusively for research on the subject and significantly expanding its activity in the field. As it became known, the company hired Yann LeCan, a professor at New York University, to lead the effort.
As he wrote on Facebook, he accepted the position of director of the lab, as part of a collaboration between the company and the university's Center for Data Science. The research topics will include data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
The so-called AI Group will have facilities in Menlo Park (California), London and New York.
According to a report by AllThingsD, Facebook is making this move while Google is also accelerating its own research in this area. (Last year, the tech giant hired Ray Kurzweil, a well-known AI researcher and futurist.) According to the report, Facebook is expected to move in the same direction, pursuing acquisitions of smaller companies or new hires.
As a person with knowledge of the matter told AllThingsD, there is likely to be a "race" between Google, Facebook and other technology companies that will not want to be left behind in the field of artificial intelligence.
Facebook had been "looking" in this direction for some time, as it had already established a research team (AI team) in September, which was working on deep learning: an approach to artificial intelligence that uses virtual networks of brain cells to process data.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
