FACEBOOK’S BEAUTIFUL MIND
The social network is in a race to master artificial intelligence and machine learning. Here’s how it might win.
In June, Facebook unveiled a new technology with a remarkable ability: DeepText, an artificial-intelligence engine that can understand “with near-human accuracy,” according to its engineers, the content in thousands of posts per second—in more than 20 different languages. The program, which promises to grow increasingly adept at grasping the subtleties of human communication, has profound implications for how Facebook serves up content, products, and services to its more than 1.65 billion active monthly users.
On Facebook’s Messenger app, DeepText can anticipate when someone needs a car and serve up a link to Uber; on
