Facebook AI to stop notifications about deceased ones

SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine if a user is dead but his or her contacts keep receiving notifications like birthday reminder.

In 2015, Facebook introduced a feature that lets people choose a legacy contact—a family member or friend entrusted to care for their Facebook account when they pass away.

"If an account hasn't yet been memorialised, we use AI to help keep it from showing up in places that might cause distress, like recommending that person be invited to events or sending a birthday reminder to their friends," Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook said in a blog post late on Tuesday.

According to her, the improved AI will keep the profile of a deceased loved one from appearing in painful ways. The social media giant, however, did not elaborate on how it is going to do that.

The social media giant has also introduced new tools for memorialised accounts like a new Tribute section and additional controls for survivors overseeing those accounts.

Over 30 million people view memorialised profiles every month to post stories, commemorate milestones and remember those who have passed away.

"The new Tributes section creates a separate tab on memorialised profiles where friends and family can share posts-all while preserving the original timeline of their loved one," Sandberg said.

"While minors can't select legacy contacts, we recently changed our policies to let parents who have lost children under 18 to request to become their legacy contact," said Facebook. — IANS