The social network will offer its artificial intelligence-assisted mapping solutions to list the roads and paths that are still unreferenced in some countries of the world.
Behind this altruistic initiative, Facebook also hopes to improve its own commercial services.
Comprehensive platform for detecting unlisted paths
OpenStreetMap is a project launched in 2004 that aims to develop global and royalty-free cartography through the participation of its many contributors around the globe.
To accelerate and improve the data already published, Facebook has announced that it has made Map With AI available to the community and has unveiled RapiD, a publishing tool for OpenStreetMap contributors. Artificial intelligence- assisted software is used to analyze satellite images to locate and represent unknown roads or tracks. Social network engineers have developed a
the neural network that allows fine recognition of roads, but also pedestrian paths, with a resolution of 0.18 m² per pixel.
An initiative not necessarily disinterested for Facebook
The system will be used primarily to improve data from countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The OpenStreetMap contributors present in these regions will then have to confirm the information retrieved by Map With AI or modify them with RapiD.
Facebook explains that it wants to count the whole world, and offer this data to humanitarian organizations. But its interest is also commercial Facebook will not fail to use its information to improve its platform's Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Local, by offering advertising more targeted and accurate to millions of additional users.
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