In case you aren’t familiar with these abbreviations, get to know AR, AI and VR. These along with connectivity are the focus of Facebook’s 10-year plan which was revealed by Mark Zuckerberg at the developer’s conference, F8.

ARaugmented reality – a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data (read more at Wikipedia).
AIartificial intelligence – the intelligence exhibited by machines or software and how they are capable of thought and behaviors. (read more at Wikipedia).
VRvirtual reality – a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined, and simulates a user’s physical presence and environment in a way that allows the user to interact with it. (read more at Wikipedia).

Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote on day one of F8 shared some interesting ideas. Here are some screen grabs and my takeaways:

F8 2016 Keynote
Facebook’s goal is giving people the tools so that they can share anything they want with anyone, while offering the technology to capture an idea or experience in it’s purest form.

How has sharing evolved through time and how will it look in the future? From text to voice to photo to video? Is the next logical step AR/VR/AI? Spock would probably agree.

F8 2016 Facebook Family of Apps
Facebook plans to offer apps for these types: One-To One, Small Groups, Friends, Community and World.

F8 2016 Facebook 10-year plan
Facebook created a 10-year road map for accomplishing their goals.

F8 2016 Plan Technology Products Ecosystem
How do they intend to travel this path? With Lee Majors as the captain of the RV? No, unfortunately The Six Million Dollar Man isn’t involved.  However, through their “playbook “of technology, products and ecosystems, Facebook intends to go where no man has gone.

New tools and infrastructure were announced to build, grow and monetize apps. 70% of Facebook apps are built outside of the U.S. React Native is a tool for app developers that enables experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. Click here to learn more about it.

Between Messenger and What’s App, people are sending about 60 billion messages a day. Compared to about 20 billion global SMS messages sent daily.  Facebook announced Messenger Platform which is powered by AI. With this tool, brands can pipe stories into Messenger.  CNN was the example used. It looks like algorithms will be based on your use, so they can personalize the content. Users can send a message with a topic, then the company returns a message with  related info.

Facebook Live will become more prominent in the Facebook layout. The API for this tool is now available to developers.

About 4 billion people in the world aren’t connected to the internet. Three barriers to connectivity:
1. Availability – about 1 billion people aren’t near a network connecton
2. Affordability – about 1 billion people can’t afford to connect
3. Awareness – about 2 billion aren’t aware of the value to spend money on connecting.

Solutions: Facebook is working on a fleet of solar-powered planes to beam down internet in unreachable areas. Also, Facebook satellites are being developed. In rural and urban areas, Facebook is boosting connectivity with tech systems. A lite version of Facebook is becoming available to offer options for consuming less data. They are working with providers to help lower cost. Free Basics is another initiative to offer services to those in need.

Facebook is using AI in the Moments app for facial recognition. In Newsfeed, AI is utilized to tailor stories for users by looking at who their friends are and activity patterns. AI is helping Facebook improve processing and system performance. They are offering open source technology such as Torch modules and designs for GPU servers.

Facebook is offering a line of VR and AR hardware. Click here to read more about Oculus.

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