Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Buying AI-Powered Search Engine ‘Meta’ And Making It Free

Short Bytes: Facebook is acquiring the startup behind the artificial intelligence-based research paper search engine named Meta. The prime reason for the buyout is to make Meta free to use, eliminating financial roadblocks and benefiting researchers and student around the world.

Mark Zuckerberg’s pet philanthropy LLC, dubbed as the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), is in the process of acquiring a Canada-based startup, founded in 2010, specializing as a search engine. Known as Meta, it is an effort, using artificial intelligence, to crawl all over the internet to harvest scientific research papers, and act a tool for the betterment of the scientific community.

Meta doesn’t prefer search engine optimized content. Instead, it relies on its artificial intelligence. It can even suggest relevant research papers to you depending on what you’ve searched in the past.

Currently, there is no word on the details on the first acquisition of CZI. However, the initiative will make the tool free to use after purchasing it. Meta, working under the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, will lift the financial burden from their shoulders, allowing them to concentrate more on the development of their tool.

“Meta is an intelligent system that can be brought to bear on a variety of scientific knowledge challenges. Soon we will enable developers to build on it or integrate it into third party platforms and services,” writes Sam Molyneux, who is the CEO at Meta.

“Going forward, our intent is not to profit from Meta’s data and capabilities; instead we aim to ensure they get to those who need them most, across sectors and as quickly as possible, for the benefit of the world,” he adds.

During their six-year-old journey, Meta has received funds from various organizations. Their scientific research tools are used by more than 1,200 institutions around the globe.

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