Recently, Facebook announced that they are developing a tool to summarize news articles so users won’t have to read them. This initiative would save up a lot of time for the users. Now the reports are suggesting that they are currently developing a neural sensor to detect people’s thoughts and translate them into action.
Despite the pandemic and the other international turmoils, the social networking site has added some 20,000 new workers to their company in 2020. They also have invested in technology to pave the way for breakthrough new experiences that will improve the lives of billions.
Reportedly, they are also researching artificial intelligence and have been receiving “new systems” that would make them 10 to 30 times faster and allow Facebook’s artificial intelligence (AI) to essentially train itself.
On the process of their detecting hate speech, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said:
“And it is actually the key tool we are using right now today in production to fight hate speech, misinformation, and honestly the hardest possible content problems we face”.
However, Facebook employees don’t think that AI could cure the company’s content moderation problems. Currently, the company works with third party human moderators and if AI comes into the picture, it may concern the workers.
Another rumor claimed that even with artificial intelligence and third-party moderators, the company was only deleting 5% of all of the hate speech posted to Facebook. But, Facebook did not agree to the claim.
During the Dec 15th meeting, the company also unveiled an AI assistant tool called “TLDR,” which could summarize news articles in bullet points so that a user wouldn’t have to read the full piece. Named after the online acronym for “too long, didn’t read,” the tool supposedly could also provide audio narration, as well as a vocal assistant to answer.
Additionally, they also announced a Star Trek-like universal translator and “Horizon,” a new virtual reality social network where users will be able to hang out with their avatars. Their neural interface also came into the discussion.
Facebook acquired neural interface startup CTRL Labs in 2019, Facebook demonstrated its progress in the field with a sensor that takes “neural signals coming from my brain, down my spinal cord along my arm, to my wrist” and allows a user to make a physical action. The company predicts that it could be used for typing, holding a virtual object, or controlling a character in a video game.
All of these indicate that Facebook has planned to grow its AI-based market drastically in the near future. However, how much success it will see is the question here. Social media is already flooding with criticism over this. WNYC editor-in-chief Audrey Cooper tweeted:
“I feel sometimes like there is someone in Facebook HQ whose job is trying to come up with new ways of completely destroying any semblance of intelligence in America”.
Despite the criticisms, Facebook is determined to carry on their research. According to Mike Schroepfer:
“We have to build responsibly to earn trust and the right to continue to grow. It’s imperative that we get this right so that people around the world get all these amazing technologies… without experiencing the downsides.”
