'We are building the technology to give anyone the power to share anything they want' - Facebook has a 10-year-plan you don't want to miss!

We have to invest in stuff we don't know will work

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook CEO Mike Schroepfer unveiled the social media giant's 10-year plan - and you're not going to believe what they have in store!

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - At the F8 conference, Zuckerberg and Schroepfer took the stage to announce Facebook's long-term plan.

The decade-long road map included everything from apps to virtual reality and AI.

Zuckerberg showed a graph stating Facebook is the ecosystem while video, search options, groups, messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram were products.

In the Tech tree, there was Connectivity - Drones, satellites, lasers, terrestrial solutions, Free basics and telco Infra - AI - vision, language, reasoning, and planning - and VR/AR - Mobile VR, Rift, Touch, Social VR and AR Tech.

Looking at the plan, Zuckerberg explained: "That's the road map for the next 10 years. We are building the technology to give anyone the power to share anything they want with anyone else."

Schroepfer said Facebook would be expanding to include better hardware and other "stuff that'll be riskier over a long time horizon," adding, "We have to invest in stuff we don't know will work."

He explained it is difficult to determine which initiatives would pay off and which would be best for users but by taking leaps of faith, it would benefit the company by advertising its business.

They aren't concerned with where each initiative will go, how it will change revenue sources or how it will affect the bottom line in its core advertising business.

Schroepfer spoke of using WhatsApp and Messenger but added, "We think it'll be a long time before we have a business model for those."

He explained Messenger and WhatsApp are "in the middle" of chat apps used today and the virtual reality use of tomorrow.

Schroepfer stated: "Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and connected. [The] most important problems we're trying to solve for the future" are internet access, building "truly intelligent machines," and creating VR "that lets us experience anything with anyone at any time."

Facebook has seen progress over the last year with the inclusion of the Aquila drone's first flight and an app adding stylized filters.

"But by human standards we're still a way off intelligence," Schroepfer admitted. "Our AI systems are pretty darn basic."

Though the company had a good year, it's failed satellite project prompted Schroepfer to announce company plans "don't always work" but he added, "That's why we do multiple things at once."

Will the world see Facebook thrive in the virtual reality realm? Will we have social media combined with artificial intelligence? More importantly, are either one what users really want to step into?

Only time will tell.

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