Hi,

I usually don't recommend these things, but this interview with Schrep [1] [2] is interesting and insightful. I recommend listening to it instead of reading. He discusses FB's ten year plan, AI, VR, Internet access for all, mentions Wikipedia several times, confirms their insatiable hunger for structured data, and reveals several details on their innovation approach. Trigger Warning: Corporate Speak

Make no mistake, I've nothing but contempt and spite for Facebook, but having worked with Mike I also know he demonstrates formidable intellect and is a decent person. He's incredibly capable in building amazing teams and predicting (more like sniffing out) the future of tech. I watch his moves closely to stay sharp.

He's right about how papers are coming out constantly which augment current AI tech in interesting new ways. I believe we're living in interesting times for computer science and mathematics--computational linguistics and probabilistic search in particular. A person can't read the CS and math papers fast enough in order to keep up with the innovation. A lot of it is trivial, sure, but some is quite startling in impact as they combine a few smaller things which seemed previously innocuous yet when used together they solve key problems.

When looking into tech and strategy for WMF and the engineers it supports, I'd be very interested in the direction Facebook is going and the technologies they plan on investing in, so passing it along.

Yours faithfully, Damon

[1] http://www.metisstrategy.com/interview/mike-schroepfer/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Schroepfer

Damon Sicore 512 963 5126 https://damon.sicore.com 6E98 FBFB D192 D325 B85D D4FF FD2A 20ED DC1D 3975