Yesterday, the Californian group, Facebook, unveiled its Paris-based research centre dedicated to artificial intelligence. This European unit is managed by Florent Perronnin, a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST Paris), who worked for the Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) for many years.
The team currently comprises five people: “We intend to hire ten or so new recruits to complete our Paris team between now and the end of the year” explained Yann Le Cun, French scientist specialising in artificial intelligence and robotics, and director of the three FAIR (Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research) units in Menlo Park, New York and now in Paris.
Paris was chosen “because of the concentration of talents discovered there” explained Mike Schoepfer, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of FAIR. Research tax credit (RTC) benefits were also taken into account when making the decision.
The laboratory’s work will be steered in three directions: “connectivity to allow as many people as possible to access the Internet, natural interfaces and immersion thanks to the Occulus virtual reality headset”.
A joint scientific venture is already underway with Inria (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en robotique – French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation).
BFM (Pascal Samama) 02/06/2015