Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and connectivity: The future of Facebook

At Facebook’s eighth developers conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced a vision for the next ten years that centered around three core areas: connectivity, artificial intelligence, and virtual/augmented reality.

The ultimate goal of Facebook is, according to Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer, to use technology to connect people.

According to businessinsider.com, the company wants to utilize their immediate ecosystem as well as their apps to break down the ten year plan into steps. Their apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, have to do with their first breakdown. An example of the improvements being present are Facebook’s new Messenger Bots, which will be little animations popping up to make the messenger app a better experience. An example of a Messenger Bot is “Poncho the Weather Cat”, which will give users the daily forecast in their area.

One of the three core ideas that Facebook will focus on is artificial intelligence. Facebook has innovated their site to include what Schroepfer likes to call “truly intelligent computer systems.” This is what provides you with a customized news feed on Facebook and allows the system to identify people and images.

Another core area that Facebook has focused on is the advancement of augmented reality, better known as virtual reality. These systems, according to Schroepfer, “have probably the best promise that I am aware of to give me the ability to feel like I am present with someone in the same room, even if they are thousands of miles away.” Facebook plans on using technologies such as Samsung’s virtual reality headset, The Oculus Rift, and the Microsoft Hololens to expand the technology of virtual reality and allow users to be in places they are not physically. Zuckerberg describes the ten-year plan as “building the technology to give anyone the power to share anything they want with anyone else.”

The last of the three core areas is Facebook’s plan to increase worldwide connectivity. Schroepfer’s plan concerning connectivity is to “connect the approximately four billion people in the world who do not have internet access today.” They plan on doing so by creating a way for third-world countries to receive basic internet access. Aquila, a solar-powered drone, is a project Facebook is currently working on to provide subsidized internet access to countries around the world.

At the end of the ten years, Facebook hopes their achievements and goals help expand the future of technology and pave a way for a positive and bright future.