Facebook has built a technology that not only allows it better understand users, but also help them connect with the people they’re most interested in on the social network.

The company announced yesterday that it has built what it’s dubbed DeepText, a deep-learning-based engine designed to read users’ posts and comments with what Facebook says is “near human” accuracy.

DeepText, according to Facebook, can read and understand several thousand posts per second thanks to its deep learning capabilities.

Deep learning is a branch of machine learning based on layers of artificial neural networks.

“This is a very good use of machine learning,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “Training a computer to understand not only individual words, but also the meanings of those words when coupled with slang terms, is a very large achievement and one that will open plenty of doors for the company.”

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