Two of the biggest tech companies today, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google, are investing heavily in artificial intelligence research. Both companies see AI as critical to the future of their products, business models, and competitive advantage. In this article, we’ll examine how Meta and Google are approaching AI and how their efforts compare.
Meta’s AI Ambitions
Since renaming itself Meta in 2021, the social media giant has staked its future on bringing the metaverse to life. To power its vision of immersive virtual worlds, Meta is developing AI across all areas—computer vision, natural language processing, recommendation systems, and more.
Central to its AI aspirations is the Perceiver AI system, which can process images, text, and other data using a unified architecture. Perceiver shows promise for multimodal learning, a key challenge in developing more generalized AI. Meta is also creating AI models tailored for augmented and virtual reality platforms.
Meta AI Research (FAIR), the company’s R&D division, employs hundreds of researchers focused on machine learning and AI. Teams are distributed globally, with main labs in Menlo Park, Montreal, Paris, Tel Aviv, and Seattle. With ample resources and talent, Meta is committed to pushing boundaries in artificial intelligence.
Google Brain Leads in AI
As a pioneer in search, machine learning, and data analytics, Google has long been at the forefront of artificial intelligence capabilities. Google Brain is the company’s central AI research organization, formed in 2010. They aim to create more intelligent products through fundamental research and applying AI advancements across Google's offerings.
Some of Google's most well-known AI projects include RankBrain, BERT, TensorFlow, and LaMDA. RankBrain helps improve Google Search results relevance through machine learning. BERT sets benchmarks in natural language processing. TensorFlow is Google’s popular open-source library for machine learning applications. And LaMDA demonstrated impressive conversational abilities as an AI chatbot system.
In addition to Google Brain, AI research occurs across the company, including DeepMind, Waymo, and robotics divisions. Google also employs many of the top minds in AI. This brain trust of talent and experience gives Google an edge in pioneering new AI techniques.
Comparing Meta’s and Google’s AI
While both tech giants are pouring resources into AI, there are noticeable differences in how Meta and Google approach research and development:
Meta focuses on AI for connecting users and building its vision for the metaverse and its social platforms.
Meta has vast troves of data from its social networks.
Meta is more secretive about its R&D, keeping innovations closer to the vest.
Google takes a broader approach to developing AI that can be applied to many real-world problems.
Google has more general web data. Different datasets result in divergent AI capabilities.
Google researchers regularly publish papers documenting their work and actively share AI models and frameworks as open source.
The Race for AI Supremacy
Given the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, Meta and Google are locked in an intense competition to become the leaders in AI innovation. Both companies recognize that AI will shape the technology landscape of the future. From improving products to powering new offerings, AI will be a differentiating strength.
For now, Google appears to have a competitive edge in artificial intelligence research thanks to its technical talent, early investments, and multifaceted approach. But Meta is a formidable contender with the resources to rapidly advance its AI capabilities, especially in areas core to its strategic vision like computer vision and natural language processing.