Highlights from Facebook’s Connexions, with Sheryl Sandberg, at STATION F
Connexions, Facebook’s interactive exposition on the technologies of tomorrow
This week at STATION F, our partner Facebook organized an event focused on the technologies of tomorrow, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, mobile technologies, apps, and much more.
After a kick-off event in the presence of Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, who came to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our partnership (with a private concert with Brigitte, Julien Doré and Jean Louis Aubert!), the two days of exhibition started, and were open to everyone.
This interactive exposition was meant to showcase Facebook’s latest tech developments in applications for everyday use, as well as share some insights with the curious and interested through conferences with guest speakers. Here are the highlights we chose, on Artificial Intelligence, Facebook’s Startup Garage, and a workshop for kids to code.
Facebook researchers discuss the ever changing definition of artificial intelligence and hope for conscious AI in the future
On Monday, Facebook announced that it would be donating 10 Million euros to artificial intelligence research in France. With this in mind, we were delighted/thankful to have three people in charge of Facebook’s AI research give us some insights as to their recent developments and the future implications of their research.
Artificial Intelligence is defined as the capacity of machines to replicate human or animal functions, but its application evolves; the key learning we got from this panel is that what was considered as artificial intelligence fifty years ago is now commonly associated as basic machine functions (like a computer playing checkmates), in the same way that in fifty years we will most likely find self-driving cars mundane.
“What we call artificial intelligence today will simply be called computer science tomorrow” Yann Lecun
The other main point we got from the conference is that, nowadays, FAIR is focused on the learning capabilities of artificial intelligence. As of right now, image recognition and voice recognition have promising short term implications on everyday life, but the real goal remains to have a machine actually learn from itself, without having to be fully programmed, and to some extent develop some common sense. Want to learn more? We advise you to read this piece from Futurism.
“Today, the top artificial intelligence system has less common sense than a rat” Yann LeCun
The three speakers also announced that they plan to double the size of the research lab in Paris, as well as partner up with a couple of french universities, such as Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie.
Facebook’s Startup Garage program manager discussed all there is to know about the startup program.
Facebook’s Startup Garage was launched exactly one year ago, in the presence of Sheryl Sandberg. It is the first time ever Facebook opens a physical space to help entrepreneurs. The program, managed by Caroline Matte, has been running ever since STATION F opened, and it is always looking for great startups focused on Private Data to join.
Potential applicants to the program got to learn about the selection process, and what the ideal candidate looks like. Interested? Here’s how it works:
- the startup should have at least part of its operations are in France,
- the startup should have more than just an idea, and preferably has already validated the product market fit.
- the startup should be in its early stage
For this first season, Startup Garage accompanied 12 private data startups for a total length of six months, putting them in contact with professionals and consultants as needed, having them attend workshops, and benefiting from the STATION F campus system as a whole. The program is proud to announce quite a few success stories from its first season, all involving a substantial growth in KPIs.
Caroline was joined by Sebastian Caron, founder and CEO of Mapstr, one of Startup Garage’s success stories, who talked about how he benefited from Facebook’s program within the STATION F ecosystem. Mapstr’s KPIs tripled during its stay in the program, and according to Sebastian, it’s in big part due to the fact that “there’s always an expert available to help if you need one, either internal or external to Facebook”.
At STATION F, we are convinced that learning code adds a lot of value for everyone. That’s why we were happy to see that one of the stands was occupied by Magic Makers, an external startup brought in by Facebook as part of their social initiatives. Magic Makers is an EdTech business, which offers classes to young kids (6 to 14 years old) to teach them how to code, through fun activities such as making your own video game.
We got to interview one of the participants! Isn’t that the cutest?
“This is my second time doing a Magic Makers activity, and I plan on going to more in the future, it’s fun, and they don’t teach coding at school” says a 10 years-old whilst finishing his personalized Fruit Ninja computer game.
Daniel, the teacher and animator, says that the stand also had a surprisingly high amount of adult attendees; “We’re definitely thinking of opening a similar coding program for adults after this”.
Outside of conferences, the event also featured many interactive stands where attendees could try out new Facebook technologies and applications, such as playing video games in virtual reality with Oculus, being part of a Facebook live video, finding out the new filters for messenger video chat, meeting friends in a virtual reality with Facebook Spaces, and recording jumping in a container filled with plastic bubbles with Instagram’s Boomerang.
Hope to see them again next year!
