The California-based technology company named Professor Yann LeCun of NYU's Centre for Data Science as the project's head.
"As one of the most respected thinkers in this field, LeCun has done ground-breaking research in deep learning and computer vision," said Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer. "We're thrilled to welcome him to Facebook."
Facebook, the world's biggest social network with more than a billion members, is building the team across three locations: its headquarters in Menlo Park, California; New York and London.
The laboratory will work on "machine learning" - a branch of artificial intelligence that involves computers "learning" to extract knowledge from enormous sets of data.
LeCun, a French-born mathematician and computer scientist, said in a blog that he was pleased to head the project that will lead to major advances in artificial intelligence.
"I am thrilled to accept the position of director of this new lab," LeCun wrote. "I'll remain a professor at New York University on a part-time basis and will maintain research and teaching activities at NYU."
Facebook chief executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke of the plans during a conference call in October to discuss the company's quarterly earnings.
Zuckerberg said a working group was formed in September "o do world-class artificial intelligence research using all of the knowledge that people have shared on Facebook.
"The goal here is to use new approaches in AI to help make sense of all the content that people share so we can generate new insights about the world and then answer people's questions, or adapt our software to meet their personal requirements" Zuckerberg said at the time.
LeCun is a professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and is the founding director of the university's Centre for Data Science.
He is known for creating an early version of a pattern-recognition algorithm which mimics, in part, the visual cortex of animals and humans. NYU says this algorithm helped AT&T's Bell Labs to deploy a cheque-reading system that by the late 1990s was reading about 20% of all the cheques written in the USA.
LeCun's recent research projects include the application of "deep learning" methods for visual scene understanding and navigation by autonomous ground robots, driverless cars, and small flying robots. It also used the "deep learning" methods for speech recognition and diverse applications in biology and medicine.
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
For more than two decades, I-Net Bridge has been one of South Africa’s preferred electronic providers of innovative solutions, data of the highest calibre, reliable platforms and excellent supporting systems. Our products include workstations, web applications and data feeds packaged with in-depth news and powerful analytical tools empowering clients to make meaningful decisions.
We pride ourselves on our wide variety of in-house skills, encompassing multiple platforms and applications. These skills enable us to not only function as a first class facility, but also design, implement and support all our client needs at a level that confirms I-Net Bridge a leader in its field.
Go to: http://www.inet.co.za
