Chinese search giant Baidu does the same. Google, for example, applies complex algorithms and self-teaching computers to optimize listings and paid ads on its search engine results pages. This deep learning technology manifests itself in services that many of us interface with every single day. And at the heart of most of them is a technique called 'deep learning,' a catchall term that encompasses several complex and nuanced models of machine learning. Turing, in many ways the father of modern computing, also created the measuring stick, dubbed the Turing Test, still used in the field of AI to determine whether a machine can be considered 'intelligent.' But it's been in the past 30 years or so that AI and machine learning have made great strides, graduating from the realm of science fiction and blossoming into widely used technologies with tangible real-world benefits. The concept of artificial intelligence-the basic idea that machines could think for themselves-was made popular by British mathematician Alan Turing in the years following World War II. But this type of one-on-one tutelage may just be the missing link in AI. Sure, it may sound counterintuitive to saddle a machine whose destiny expressly calls for functional autonomy with a living babysitter. So what makes Facebook M so unique? It comes with a human copilot.

Instead, the social network wants to create an AI that can successfully make a dinner reservation, suggest a gift for a friend's baby shower, or prep you for an upcoming date. But Facebook isn't interested in teaching its machines to recognize classic paintings or outperform human competitors on Jeopardy. The latest in a long list of undertakings by major tech companies looking to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their services, Facebook M looks to pioneer the road ahead by taking what many would view as a step back. If it succeeds, the machines just might save us all. Facebook is looking to completely reinvent the paradigm of artificial intelligence with a new service called Facebook M.

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