• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

Facebook’s CEO Talks About A Virtual And Augmented Future

By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 12, 2016, 7:27 PM ET

Over the next 10 years, Facebook plans to push full force into artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Currently, Facebook is known as a social network for posting photos, commenting to friends about bar hoping, and reading the news of the day. But over the next decade, CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality will make the social network even more compelling.

In the future, users will be able to share 360-degree videos of their families and be presented with news stories they never knew they would be interested in but contain photos they may find fascinating, he explained.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Zuckerberg, speaking at his company’s annual developers conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, said that Facebook’s goal in advancing artificial intelligence technology is to “build systems that are better than people in perception.” These systems will recognize and explain objects in an image or understand speech when spoken to.

He said that Facebook’s photo-sharing app, Moments, “uses the best facial recognition system in the world” to understand human faces in pictures. Of course, Google and Microsoft, which both brag of similar image-recognition technology, would likely disagree.

Facebook’s image recognition technology has gotten so good that the company built a tool for the blind that can understand images in a picture and read them the contents of the image out loud.

Facebook eventually plans to incorporate it’s image recognition technologies into its news feed so that it will be able to show users news stories containing images most likely to grab their attention. Zuckerberg didn’t elaborate in more detail about how exactly this would work.

It’s possible that users who are normally uninterested in news about the Syrian refugee crisis but who happen to be lovers of photojournalism would be targeted with news articles that contain the type of dramatic photos Facebook believes they would read. The goal is to “show more interesting content” that users won’t even know they want until they see it, Zuckerberg said.

About virtual reality, Zuckerberg said the technology “has the potential to be the most social platform.” “You just feel like you are right there with another person,” he said.

When his daughter takes her first steps, Zuckerberg said he wants to capture the whole scene in 360-degree video so that friends and family can strap on VR headsets and “feel like they are in the same room with us.” He also showed a video of two people that are in different places playing games like Pong together in a virtual reality environment.

“This is a kind of social experience you can’t have on any existing platform today,” Zuckerberg said.

Although Facebook has previously said that it’s still the early days of virtual reality, it has been investing heavily in the technology in anticipation of a boom in VR content and 360-degree video files. For example, to help spur more people to shoot 360-degree video, Facebook unveiled its own camera and said it plans to make its design free for anyone to build.

And while he is betting that the recently released Oculus Rift VR headset will generate big sales, Zuckerberg believes that in the future, similar devices will be much smaller and resemble traditional glasses. Furthermore, he argued that they will incorporate both virtual reality and its close cousin, augmented reality technology.

For more about Facebook and virtual reality, watch:

Unlike virtual reality headsets, which surrounds a person in a full 3D interactive environment, an augmented reality headset, like Microsoft’s (MSFT) HoloLens, overlays 3D holographic images into a person’s field of view of the real world.

The virtual reality glasses of the future

In the future, people will be able to show photos to friends wearing hybrid VR and AR glasses, and expand those pictures in front of their friends’ faces, Zuckerberg explained.

“It will take a long time for us to make this work,” Zuckerberg acknowledged.

 

About the Author
By Jonathan Vanian
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jonathan Vanian is a former Fortune reporter. He covered business technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data privacy, and other topics.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Image showing multiple computer screens with code.
CybersecuritySecurity
Mercor, a $10 billion AI startup that works with companies including OpenAI and Anthropic, confirms major data breach
By Beatrice NolanApril 2, 2026
6 hours ago
picture of the word "solana"
CryptoCryptocurrency
Latest crypto hack sees thieves make off with $280 million from Solana DeFi platform Drift
By Carlos GarciaApril 2, 2026
6 hours ago
Jack Dorsey and Roelof Botha think AI can make middle management obsolete 
AIBlock
Jack Dorsey and Roelof Botha think AI can make middle management obsolete 
By Jacqueline MunisApril 2, 2026
8 hours ago
china
AIChina
Meet China’s AI-powered recycling robot that sorts 220 pounds of clothes in 2 to 3 minutes
By Tian MacLeod Ji and The Associated PressApril 2, 2026
8 hours ago
In the age of vibe coding, trust is the real bottleneck
AIEye on AI
In the age of vibe coding, trust is the real bottleneck
By Sharon GoldmanApril 2, 2026
9 hours ago
A photo illustration of two laptops with eyeballs over a red background with alert signs.
CryptoNorth Korea
I knew about North Korean hackers—they still tricked me and got into my computer
By Ben WeissApril 2, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns
Real Estate
Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns
By Fortune EditorsApril 2, 2026
18 hours ago
Current price of gold as of April 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of April 1, 2026
By Fortune EditorsApril 1, 2026
2 days ago
Two-thirds of parents say their adult Gen Z kids still rely on them financially  for support—even though it's putting them under strain
Success
Two-thirds of parents say their adult Gen Z kids still rely on them financially  for support—even though it's putting them under strain
By Fortune EditorsMarch 31, 2026
2 days ago
The tax escape map: Billionaires are bolting for Florida from the West Coast and taking billions in tax revenue with them
Real Estate
The tax escape map: Billionaires are bolting for Florida from the West Coast and taking billions in tax revenue with them
By Fortune EditorsApril 2, 2026
18 hours ago
Deutsche Bank asked AI if it’s true that AI will solve the economy’s inflation problems. The robots answered
Economy
Deutsche Bank asked AI if it’s true that AI will solve the economy’s inflation problems. The robots answered
By Fortune EditorsApril 1, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of April 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of April 1, 2026
By Fortune EditorsApril 1, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.