Social media giants Facebook and Google pushing the boundaries of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing.

Adam Milton-Barker | Mar 18, 2015 | Artificial Intelligence | 6908

 

Most people will know Google for its search engine and social network, Google+, if you ask people what Facebook is the most common reply would probably be the biggest social platform in the world. What not many people know about is Google and Facebook's involvement in more advanced technology. In 2014 the tech giants began to push the limits of human capabilities in a bid to change peoples lives and make the world a more connected place. Both Google and Facebook announced of number of ventures including Solar Powered Drones, Virtual Reality and their plans to push the boundaries of today’s Artificial Intelligence. Google has actually been involved in Artificial Intelligence since before 2012 with one of their projects known as Hummingbird, which Google Now uses to predict Android users’ next moves. In January 2014 Google announced its US$500M+ investment in AI start-up ‘Deep Mind’, with whom Facebook had been in talks with in 2013. In 2012 Facebook bought up an Israeli start up 'Face.com' and in March 2014 Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Ashton Kutcher joined forces in a personal investment of US$40 million in Artificial Intelligence company 'Vicarious FPC'. Facebook's aim is to convert the masses of data it owns into a brain for AI and use the technology for facial recognition to identify users. The primary aim for Vicarious is to create a digital brain, more specifically, the neocortex or frontal cortex which is the part of the brain that manages what are known as cognitive functions including tasks such as spacial reasoning, processing language and calculating math. In 2015 the AI facial recognition system, now known as DeepFace, is said to be 97.25% accurate at detecting if two photos have the same person it bringing the AI close to a human level of accuracy. This system can detect who is in a photo even if they are not tagged in it and can be controlled in the Timeline and Tagging settings on Facebook. Currently this feature is being tested in the US but the European Union has restricted the use of the technology due to privacy issues. More recently Facebook's AI Research Lab (FAIR) has released part of its Artificial Intelligence Research as Open source under the name of Torch. Torch is a collection of software that provides the ability to develop AI with numerics, machine learning and computer vision and is something that I will be looking into to help advance oIsCore AI programs. While all of this is going on at Facebook, Google have been getting closer and closer to creating a Quantum Computer which will provide faster processing power than conventional computers and allow us to solve many different types of problems in record speed. Google have also recently joined up in a collaboration with Nasa and USRA (Universities Space Research Association) to share a 512-qubit D-Wave Two quantum computer in a NASA research center located in California. Even though both Facebook and Google are only just beginning to scratch the surface of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Physics, their progress has come on leaps and bounds. Over time I am sure that we will continue to see amazing advancements from these projects and that soon the world will be benefiting from this technology in a massive way. Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Physics are no longer science fiction, with these technologies we will be able to solve many of the worlds problems and answer questions that have been a mystery to the human race for so long. Check out the videos below to find out more about some of the technologies and advancements mentioned in this article and stay tuned for more articles about the progression of Artificial Intelligence.