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Facebook, Instagram outage shows how artificial intelligence is used in photos

Posted at 2:29 PM, Jul 03, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-03 17:29:44-04

Thanks to Facebook and Instagram's partial outage on Wednesday, users were able to see some of the social networking sites' artificial intelligence at work.

Users who visited both sites using a computer browser could see that Facebook and Instagram photos contain basic descriptions of who and what is in a photo (for instance clouds, clothing, people, etc.). In one photo, the A.I. could figure out that a person was wearing a suit.

Here is what Facebook's website says about how it processes information in photos:

"We are creating visual sensors derived from digital images and videos that extract information about our environment, to further enable Facebook services to automate tasks that people automatically do today visually. Our ultimate goal, to automatically, and intelligently enhance people’s experiences across Facebook products."

A request for further comment has been left for Facebook.

Facebook's website does not hide that this information is being scanned by artificial intelligence. How exactly this information is used to "enhance people's experiences" is still unknown.