Facebook is studying the ancient Chinese game of Go for insights as it works on building an artificial brain - one that it hopes to turn into a virtual personal assistant that can also sort through a mountain of photos, videos and comments posted by its next billion or so users.
Called M, it is believed to have been named after James Bond's secretary, Moneypenny.
Facebook's artificial intelligence team revealed their work at an industry conference this week.
Among its accomplishments: the development of software that can analyze a photo and answer questions about what it shows, or study a picture of toy blocks and predict whether they will fall over.
Sure, you could pay a human expert to examine a photo and answer those questions, but mustering an army of such organic brains wouldn't be cheap.
'The beauty of AI systems is that we can get enough scale to deploy this to everyone on the planet,' Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer, said in a briefing for reporters.
Facebook isn't the only tech company working on these problems. Google, Apple, Microsoft and IBM are all studying artificial intelligence, as are several smaller tech firms that are vying to develop more useful digital services for consumers and businesses.
Many are competing to hire the most talented scientists from universities, according to Mike Tung, CEO of Diffbot, a Silicon Valley startup that uses artificial intelligence to scour the Web and extract data that clients can use in their business.
Facebook recently began limited testing of an online personal assistant, called 'M,' that uses a combination of human workers and software to answer questions and carry out tasks like ordering food or flowers for a friend.
Schroepfer said Facebook is using artificial intelligence software to assist and study those interactions, so it can learn the best responses and eventually perform tasks that now require human assistance.
The social network, which boasts 1.5 billion global users, has also sponsored efforts to build drones and laser networks to help reach billions more people who currently don't have Internet access.
Schroepfer said Facebook can use artificial intelligence to understand the vast amounts of information those users will upload and anticipate which messages they will want to see.
'We need systems that can help us understand the world and help us filter it better,' he added.
Schroepfer plans to describe some of Facebook's work in a speech at this week's international Web Summit conference in Dublin.
One project combines a new technique for identifying visual images with the ability to field questions posed in natural language.
In a demonstration video, the program answered spoken questions about a photo of a baby, describing what the baby was doing and what kind of room he was in.
Another effort uses 'predictive learning' to study images and make informed predictions of what will happen, such as whether a stack of blocks is stable enough to stand or fall over.
Facebook has also developed a program to play the board game Go, which is considered a tougher challenge than chess for computers.
Players in Go have thousands of options for arranging stones on the board, and the best human players appear to recognize visual patterns without trying to calculate each potential outcome
Schroepfer said Facebook's team is using visual recognition algorithms rather than just 'brute force' computing to examine every possible move.
It may be years before some of this work finds its way into Facebook's services, Schroepfer added — but it's definitely on its way.
Earlier this year Facebook began testing a personal assistant for users that can make purchases, reservations and even handle your diary.
'M is a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf. It's powered by artificial intelligence that's trained and supervised by people,' said the firm's David Markus.
'Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf.
'It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more.'
Only a few hundred people are believed to have access to the service.
'This is early in the journey to build M into an at-scale service, and the firm admits that the fact it relies on people to oversee it could make it difficult to provide for all of its users.
'But it's an exciting step towards enabling people on Messenger to get things done across a variety of things, so they can get more time to focus on what's important in their lives.'
In internal tests, Facebook employees have been using M for several weeks to do everything from organizing dinner parties to tracking down an unusual beverage in New Orleans, according to Wired.
'An engineer went to Paris for a couple days, and his friend asked M to redecorate his desk in a French style,' Marcus told the site.
'Twenty-four hours later, the desk was decorated with a proper napkin, baguette bread, and a beret.'
One of M's most popular requests from its Facebook employee testers was technical support, using the service to call their cable company and endure the endless hold times and automated messages to help you set up home wifi or cancel your HBO.
Marcus also reveal the human touches added by the service's 'trainers'.
'If you ask M to plan a birthday dinner for your friend, the software might book the Uber and the restaurant, but a person might surprise your friend at the end of the night by sending over birthday cupcakes from her favorite bakery.' Wired said
'M learns from human behaviors,' says Marcus.
The service was first revealed by Amir Efrati from tech site The Information.
In comparison, Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana can be used to search the web for goods, weather information, traffic details, quiz answers and more.
But they use artificial intelligence to find the best possible solution, which can sometimes fall short and struggles to deal with context correctly every time a person makes a request.
Facebook's proposed plans are reminiscent of Magic, a service that aims to provide users with anything they want - providing it's legal - using just a text message.
Once an operator receives the message, they ask follow-up questions, say how much an item will cost and arrange its delivery as quickly as possible.
Users can sign up to Magic's service, which is currently only available in the US, by texting 408-217-1721.
'We have trained operators standing by 24/7 to answer every one of your requests,' its website says. 'Send us a text message, and we'll get you what you want.'
Once a message is sent, it is left to the operator to work out how to fulfill the request in the fastest way possible.
For example, plane or rail tickets can be bought online and then emailed to the individual, while a service such as Instacart may be used to do the weekly shop.
The service makes money by charging a fee, or 'tip' for its fixing service, which means that users pay two premiums for a supermarket shop, for example.
But texting the number in the first place is free and Magic always tells the user the cost of using it to buy a product or service before it's ordered.
'There are no hidden fees, and tip is included,' the website added.
GoButler is a similar online concierge that is available internationally.
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