Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Artificial Intelligence: Facebook recruits “fairy” French – L’Observateur

“Between us, it’s called ‘Fairies’: the fairies!” Jokes Yann LeCun. This high-flying French researcher leading the global laboratory in artificial intelligence research (AI) called FAIR Facebook (Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research). And Yann is in Paris, Tuesday June 2 with Mike Schroepfer, the head honcho of technology at Facebook, to announce the opening of FAIR Paris: the only antenna her lab, outside the US

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The AI, strategic area

FAIR Paris, led by Florent Perronnin, has already recruited five French researchers. Yann LeCun, world leading convolutional networks and image recognition, details:

A total of 45 employees between FAIR Menlo Park, New York and Paris. Eventually, we will be a few hundred permanent. “

The goal is to develop machines that can recognize and interpret the content (images, video, texts …) but also, ultimately, understanding . men and dialogue with them, in all languages ​​Mike Schroepfer remember:

Facebook invests in three main research areas: global connectivity, virtual reality and artificial intelligence “

<. p> Le Cun, “artificial intelligence is one of the greatest challenges of our time”:

This is a strategic area for the future: Developments in the sector will have a huge impact on the whole society! “

Yann LeCun, research laboratory on artificial intelligence boss of Facebook, at the University of Minnesota, October 20, 2014. (Runner1928 / Wikipedia)

Indeed, artificial intelligence – and especially learning machines, the deep learning and neural networks – are one of the hottest areas of innovation of the moment. US venture capitalists scrambling to finance the AI ​​start-ups that are mushrooming in California, but also in New York, London and Paris.

Meanwhile, giants information technology – IBM Google, Facebook to Microsoft – are investing heavily on this research field full of promise. For future applications are endless: from medicine to psychology, logistics industry, entertainment, social networking … Not to mention public safety and police. Google recently bought the small UK companies Deep Mind, Dark Blue Vision Labs and Factory. Facebook decided to start betting on France.



Why France

Laurent Solly, General Manager of Facebook France says:

We fought a lot, within the group, for Paris is selected “

In addition to its attractive tax system for research, the hexagon has important advantages:

– a high concentration of talent,

-. a good network of universities and colleges, with INRIA (National Institute for Computer Science and Control), the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (where studied LeCun).

Facebook, which wants to practice “open innovation” is particularly trying to structure a partnership with the public research institute INRIA. “It is important for our scientists not to stay in their ivory tower, but to be engaged with the issues in the real world, “said François Sillion, deputy CEO to the science of INRIA. The organization already has a partnership with Microsoft.

Dominique Nora

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