Facebook’s future: Artificial intelligence, drones and virtual reality
Facebook Inc. plans to eventually make an augmented reality device so
small it might one day resemble a pair of glasses. The company unveiled
this Google Glass-like aspiration along with drones, solar-powered
planes and bots as part of a 10-year road map for the company on
Tuesday.
In a nod to the now-defunct Google Glass, which Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL, +0.91%GOOG, +1.09%
is said to be updating behind
closed doors, and in an attempt to compete with Microsoft Corp.’s
MSFT, +1.35%
Hololens and the not-yet released headset from Alibaba Group Holdings-
BABA, +2.36%
and Google-backed startup Magic Leap, Facebook
FB, -0.34%
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
Tuesday the company is expanding its focus to augmented reality.
During
the keynote at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg said
Oculus, the virtual-reality company Facebook bought in 2014 for $2
billion, will eventually be able to shrink down the size of its hardware
so that it can be viewed through traditional-looking eyeglasses.
Virtual reality, with its
large headsets that shut wearers out from the rest of the world while
they focus on gaming, is still viewed today as somewhat antisocial. But
Zuckerberg sees this technology as one that will connect people and
inspire new forms of communication in the not-so-distant future.
Advances
will enable virtual-reality technology to be used in a more social way
than it is today, Zuckerberg said. He believes virtual reality has the
potential to become the most social platform in technology because it
lets users meet with other real people, offering a personal experience
when catching up with, say, family members abroad.
Virtual
reality is one of the three pillars supporting the company’s growth over
the next 10 years, in addition to artificial intelligence and devices
such as satellites, lasers and drones that will be responsible for
providing Internet connectivity to rural regions.
Zuckerberg
said artificial intelligence will eventually be able to understand what
it intakes, such as content from video or photos, and speak to users
using natural language. The company announced the beta launch of Bot
Engine on Tuesday, a personal assistant service on Messenger that will
help users with tasks such as finding out the weather or making dinner
reservations, akin to Apple Inc.’s
AAPL, +1.44%
Siri or Amazon.com Inc.’s
AMZN, +1.98%
Alexa .