Artificial Intelligence is the buzzword these days in tech circles. Earlier what was mainly the domain of researchers and movie makers involved in making dystopian future scenarios, has now infiltrated into the corporate world. There is a reason behind that. Every sector out there is now using AI in some form or the other to solve hiccups and envision new methods to ease their pressure. In the midst of all this, the social media platform Facebook is slowly integrating AI into its offing bit by bit. Now, to spearhead this process it has brought on board, artificial intelligence academic Joelle Pineau. Joelle will be heading the firm's new research lab in Montreal, Canada.
Incidentally, this is Facebook's fourth research lab. The social media company already has established labs in Palo Alto, New York, and Paris. However, another one would surely give it an added edge against big-wigs, such as Microsoft Corp and Alphabet's Google.
According to the statement issued by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Mark Zuckerberg's firm will also invest somewhere around $7 million to support AI research at Montreal academic institutions. If this is not the signal of AI becoming an immersive part of modern life and research, then nothing is.
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Pineau served as the co-director of McGill University's Reasoning and Learning Lab. Her work involved developing and implementing models and algorithms of robotics in healthcare, transportation and language processing. She will be maintaining her academic position during her tenure in Facebook. Pineau is going to be aided by fellow researchers Pascal Vincent, Michael Rabbat and Nicolas Ballat. Facebook intends on creating a team, that is 30-researchers strong, to aid AI development.
The social media platform already involves AI into the mix when it comes to image recognition, language analysis, targeted advertising, and identification and removal of content that violates the firm's rules and regulations.
