As most big tech companies have known for sometime now, AI is the way of the future, whether it be for algorithmic or industrial purposes. Facebook, being one such company, is now developing a machine learning chip in-house to upgrade its existing AI.
Facebook goes all in with its chips
This new chip will be used for tasks such as recommending content and accounts to users, reports The Information, citing two anonymous sources close to the matter.
Though they don’t say it out loud, given its track record we wouldn’t be surprised to find that Facebook plans to use this to enhance its ad recommendations too, so maybe keep an eye out to see if your ads seem even more targeted than usual soon.
Furthermore, the social media giant has also developed another chip specifically for transcoding videos, improving performance for both live and pre-recorded videos on its platforms (like WhatsApp and Instagram).
Facebook has worked with a number of chip manufacturers to bolster its AI offerings in the past, such Intel and Qualcomm, but appears to be working on these new chips without outside help.
Google recently made headway on upgrading its own machine-learning-capable AI chips, though it’s also using AI to develop them. And we don’t think we have to explain just how cool (or terrifying if you’re worried about the singularity) that is.
For now though, it appears that Facebook will build its chips using traditional means.
“Facebook is always exploring ways to drive greater levels of compute performance and power efficiency with our silicon partners and through our own internal efforts,” said a spokesperson.