Facebook wants to improve scanning of deceased profiles by helping with Artificial Intelligence. Learn more about the news
Dead profiles are a constant concern for Facebook. For the past few years, the social network has set out to identify accounts belonging to people who are no longer around. The most important step was taken in 2009 with the creation of memorial profiles, in which people can interact by writing thoughts and memories towards their deceased loved ones.
Unfortunately, however, the system doesn't always understand which profiles should be turned into memorials. As a result, it often invites subscribers to befriend deceased users or invite them to events or even make birthday wishes. To avoid committing such gaffes, Facebook is devising a system based on Artificial Intelligence that can help it understand which are the accounts of dead people. The project was also born following complaints and discontent from several users, who keep receiving Facebook invitations to interact with deceased people or loved ones.
Facebook intercepts deceased profiles thanks to Artificial Intelligence
Facebook cares about all its members, even those who are no longer there. In addition to offering the ability to delegate profile management to others after one's death (in a sort of social will), the social allows those who remain to memorialize those who are gone. Those who are under 18 years old cannot appoint who will inherit control of their profile, but their parents or guardians can do it for them. The latter, to get permission to manage the memorial account, must send a request to Facebook.
The memorial profile, on the other hand, was born in 2009 and allows you to remember the person in many ways. For example, you can add a status introduced by the word "Remembering" and add the name of the person to be commemorated. This feature is used by more than 30 million people per month: users write in the profile of the person concerned or in their own status tagging him/her.
The intention of Facebook is to create a living place, which can also remember those who are no longer there. And this shines through in the words of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer "We hope that Facebook remains a place where the memory and spirit of our loved ones can be celebrated and continue to live on".
To achieve this goal, Facebook allows you to commemorate those who are no longer with us, and especially when it recognizes that the profile belongs to a deceased person it blocks the profile and deletes any kind of notification about him, without of course deleting the profile (unless a third person does it). Facebook wants to improve the results of scanning the accounts of the deceased and to do so it has announced that it will use an Artificial Intelligence system, so that those profiles will not appear in inappropriate virtual places. The social network also announced other news about this type of profiles. Among them is the birth of a section called "tributes" that will allow users to leave memories, condolences, sweet dedications to those who are no longer with us.
Facebook wants to refine the scanning of the profiles of the deceased also after some tasteless jokes by some users who had requested the transformation of a profile from normal to memorial despite the person concerned was still alive, thus causing the blocking of the account and the concern of his contacts.