Facebook explores AI and deep learning to analyze data and behavior
Facebook has named New York University Professor Yann LeCun the director of a new laboratory devoted to research in artificial intelligence and deep learning.
LeCun, a professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, is a pioneer in this growing field. In the 1980s, LeCun proposed one of the early versions of the back-propagation algorithm, the most popular method for training artificial neural networks.
He is also one of the leading scientists in “deep learning”—a branch of machine learning in which researchers aim to emulate humans’ auditory and visual systems. Deep learning methods are used for a wide variety of applications—including speech and image recognition—by companies such as Google, NEC, Microsoft, IBM, and Baidu.
