Facebook announced PyTorch will become the company’s default AI framework at its developer conference F8 Refresh this week. PyTorch is an open-source machine learning framework that the company co-created with AI researchers in 2016.
By making PyTorch the default framework for all of its AI and machine learning models, the company believes its research and engineering initiatives will become more effective, collaborative and efficient as well as help advance the libraries and learn from PyTorch developers.
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“The goal of our PyTorch migration is to create a smoother end-to-end developer experience for our engineers and developers. We want to accelerate our research-to-production pipeline by using a single platform that allows us the flexibility to experiment coupled with the ability to launch AI models at production scale,” Lin Qiao, engineering director at Facebook, wrote in a post.
Additionally, the company announced new business messaging tools and creator tools at the conference.
The company opened up the Messenger API for Instagram so developers and businesses can start to integrate Instagram messaging into their applications and workflows. Facebook believes this will help create more meaningful conversations and increase customer satisfaction.
Facebook’s WhatsApp Business API is also getting new updates such as faster onboarding, support for more message types, and new features that allow users to respond and reply without typing.
A beta test of the LoginConnect with Messenger was released to enable customers to opt into messaging with businesses through Facebook Login.
Business Apps was also introduced as part of the company’s business suite. Business Apps will allow the company to bring third-party tools into the Facebook Business Suite, and a developer platform called Facebook Business Extension has been announced. “It’s the solution for developers and businesses to make integration with Facebook Business Suite simple. In the coming months, we’ll grow the ecosystem of apps by inviting our developer community to apply for early access,” Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, vice president of platform partnerships at Facebook, wrote in a post.
For creators, the company previewed the Multipeer API as part of its AR creation software Spark AR Studio. With the new API, creators can add more effects and coordinated experiences for multiple call participants.
“As we look to the future, it’s helpful to take measure of the progress we’ve made on our ultimate goal of helping developers find innovative solutions for connecting people. That’s why the announcements covered today are focused on Facebook technologies designed to unlock new opportunities for developers and businesses around the world to build and grow on our platforms,” Papamiltiadis wrote.
