Why is Facebook passionate about robots? It's just the future of AI



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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Facebook announced Tuesday the hiring of several top academics in the field of artificial intelligence, among which a roboticist known for his work at Disney, moving the characters animated in a more humane way.

recruits raise a big question – why is Facebook interested in robots?

It's not as if the social media giant was suddenly interested in developing mechanical friends, although it uses robotic arms in some of its data centers. The answer is even more central to the problem of how AI systems work today.

Today, most successful AI systems must be exposed to millions of data points tagged by humans – such as photos of cats – before they can learn to recognize them. models that people take for granted. Likewise, game bots such as Google's computer-controlled GoGo AlphaGo Zero require tens of thousands of tries to learn the best gestures of their failures.

Creating systems that require less data and more common sense "It's clear that we're missing something on how humans can learn so fast," said Yann LeCun, the lead scientist of Facebook at the IA, during a call to reporters last week. "Until now, the best ideas have come out of robotics."

Among the people that Facebook hires, there is Jessica Hodgins, the former Disney researcher; and Abhinav Gupta, his colleague from Carnegie Mellon University, who uses robot arms to learn how to grasp things.

Pieter Abbeel, robotician at the University of California at Berkeley and co-founder of the Covariant Robotic Training Society. I said the field of robotics has advantages and constraints that drive progress in AI. First, the real world is naturally complex, so robotic AI systems have to deal with rare and unexpected events. And real-world constraints such as lack of time and the cost of moving machines push researchers to solve difficult problems.

"Robotics forces you to perform many reality checks," Abbeel said. "How good are these algorithms?"

There are other more abstract applications of robotics, said Ken Goldberg, a professor at the University of Berkeley. Just like teaching a robot to escape from a computer maze, other robots change their behavior depending on what actions they've taken have brought them closer to a goal. Such systems could even be adapted to serve advertisements, he said – which is precisely the pillar of Facebook's activity.

"This is not a static decision, it is a dynamic decision". Hodgins has expressed interest in a wide range of research in robotics, ranging from building a "compelling humanoid robot" to creating a mechanical servant to "load and unload my dishwasher."

While admitting the need to impregnate the robots She also said that her work in animation could lead to a new form of sharing – a tool in which tools powered by AI could help show a 3D pottery work, for example. [19659002"Unechosequejhopetobeabletodoistoexplorethecreativityofthe"creativity"she

For Facebook, planting a flag in the hot field also allows her to be competitive for emerging talents from universities , LeCun of Facebook said:

Bart Selma n, a computer expert from Cornell Computer Science, said that it's a good idea for Facebook to expand its reach in AI and to take charge of projects that are not directly related to the activities of the company. done with autonomous cars, for example.

This attracts not only attention, but also students. He said that the larger the research program, the better the laboratories

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