Facebook Working On Burying Those Lousy Memories
San Jose, Calif. — Don’t go breaking my heart, Facebook. It’s a sentiment shared by people like 48-year-old San Jose resident Beth Burkley, who gets caught off guard when she sees reminders of her ex pop up on social media. “I have a couple of ex boyfriends that I’m still friends with on Facebook. We keep in touch,” she said. “Then there are others who I hope if I ever run into them again, it’s (with) the front end of my car,” she...
Raise Your Computer’s IQ
San Jose, Calif. — Facebook, Google and Microsoft are tapping the power of a vintage computer gaming chip to raise your smartphone’s IQ with artificially intelligent programs that recognize faces and voices, translate conversations on the fly and make searches faster and more accurate. It’s part of a trend toward the use of an artificial intelligence technique called “deep learning” that is creating a sense that a new era of smart...
Facebook’s ‘Like’ Button Gets ‘Angry’ and ‘Sad’
New York — Facebook’s “like” button isn’t going away, but it’s about to get some company. Facebook has been testing alternatives to “like” in about a half-dozen countries, including Ireland, Spain and Japan. On Wednesday, Facebook started making “haha,” “angry” and three other responses available in the U.S. and the rest of the world. In changing a core part of Facebook — the 7-year-old “like” button has become synonymous with the...
Robot ‘Personal Assistants’ Could Become Your New Best Friend
You may not have unwrapped a robot on Christmas, but your new year will be filled with artificial intelligence. Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other technology companies, large and small, are making rapid advancements with virtual personal assistants that can solve problems and even complete tasks. “We’re going to start to see more personal assistants, and the ones that are already online will get more useful,” said Brian Blau, an...
How Conspiracy Theories Become ‘Truth’ on Facebook
Conspiracy theories, hoaxes and other variants of baloney have become so prevalent and intractable on Facebook that we no longer bother to debunk them. But a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides some insight on exactly how misinformation spreads — with big implications for the fight against it. The paper, titled The spreading of misinformation online, comes from researchers at Boston...
