Professor Yann LeCun, who is currently lecturing at NYUs Center for Data Science, has been studying AIfor decades.

While for now Facebook feeds may seem like a random jumble, LeCun argues these can be improved by intelligent systems.

This could include things like ranking (the items in) news feeds, or determining the ads that are shown to users, to be more relevant, he told AFP.

Then there are things that are less directly connected, like analyzing content, understanding natural language and being able to model users to allow them to learn new things, entertain them and help them achieve their goals.

Limited by the number of smart people in the world

Facebook is the worlds biggest social network; but like all web services, it faces the challenge of maintaining growth, keeping users engaged and delivering enough advertising to generate revenue without annoying its users.

LeCun said the new artificial intelligence lab would be the largest research facility of its kind in the world, though he declined to provide numbers.

Were limited only by how many smart people there are in the world that we can hire, the Paris-born mathematician and computer scientist said.

The lab will be based in three locations New York, London and at Facebooks California headquarters.

But it will also be part of the broader artificial intelligence research community, according to LeCun, who starts his new job in January while keeping his NYU post.

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Facebook hires French artificial intelligence guru