Facebook Buys AI Company Bloomsbury AI to Combat Fake News
Looks like Facebook isn’t stopping with AI. Facebook is not acquiring Bloomsbury AI. This move by Facebook is to deploy the team in assisting the company to fight fake news and address other content issues.
Facebook, on the other hand, does not want to make it seem that the company is dragging itself to combat fake news. In the company’s own words, this “expertise will strengthen Facebook’s efforts in natural processing research, and help us further understand natural language and its applications.”
It is clear that this is not the whole picture. Facebook would be using the team to detect misinformation and other problematic content as well. We can come to that assumption because of the company that Bloomsbury AI co-founder and Head of Research Sebastian Riedel also co-founded. Factmata’s sole purpose is to develop tools to help brands combat fake news.
Drastic Need
This is something that Facebook needs due to the huge amount of fake news that is being circulated through Facebook and WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook. This matter became a priority for the company when governments around the world blamed the social media company for the circulation of fake news, and also the drastic results.
But though this might seem as a step in the right direction, Facebook also needs to be careful on how it is going to play the AI card. The company is already under fire for storing user data and sharing it with companies and organizations. And with AI, data is the name of the game. And without data, it would seem almost impossible to run an Artificial Intelligence program.
Works
So what Facebook needs right now is a smart tool that manages to find, process and combat fake news, and yet manage to be transparent and keep users data with the users.
And with Facebook having two manage WhatsApp and Instagram as well, this is something that Facebook desperately needs, and the company might also be hoping to again get into the good books of governments and organizations around the world
Though it has not been disclosed as to how much Facebook is paying for this merger, it is reported that Facebook is paying between $23 to $30 million.
Bloomsbury is no new company as it is an alumnus of Entrepreneur First, and the company is also backed by Fly.VC, Seedcamp, IQ Capital, UCL Technology Fund and also the U.K taxpayer-funded London Co-investment fund.
