Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer to step down

Menio Park, California

FACEBOOK chief technology officer (CTO) Mike Schroepfer, a 13-year veteran who oversees the social network's work in artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality and the blockchain, will step down next year.

Another longtime Facebook executive, Andrew Bosworth, will take over as CTO, according to an internal message on Wednesday from chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr Schroepfer's move marks the most significant departure from the company in years and follows the recent exits of several other top executives.

His decision to step aside comes at a time when Facebook is under escalating pressure to clean up its service - a challenge the company believes it can tackle using the AI software that Mr Schroepfer's teams are building.

Mr Schroepfer joined Facebook in 2008 and has been CTO since 2013, reporting to Mr Zuckerberg. He sits atop many of Facebook's most ambitious organisations - including groups that the social network is depending on for future growth - such as engineering, infrastructure, augmented reality and VR, and the blockchain and finance unit. His desk sits next to Mr Zuckerberg's and operating chief Sheryl Sandberg's at Facebook headquarters.

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Mr Schroepfer's most central role may be his oversight of Facebook's AI organisation, which he helped build. That group develops the technology Facebook uses to automatically find and remove content that violates its policies, like nudity, hate speech and graphic violence.

Pressure to improve those systems increased last week following a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal that found evidence describing the company's struggles to reckon with issues like Covid-19 misinformation and human trafficking.

With billions of global users to serve, Facebook executives have pointed to AI technology as the best way to police posts at such a large scale. The technology is far from perfect, and Facebook also uses thousands of human content moderators to monitor posts on its apps.

Mr Schroepfer, 46, will continue to advise the company in a new part-time "senior fellow" role, helping with recruiting technical talent and developing the company's AI initiatives.

"This new position will also create more space for me to dedicate time to my family and my personal philanthropic efforts while staying deeply connected to the company," Mr Schroepfer wrote in an internal post. He also tweeted that he will stay "closely connected to the company and the tech we're building".

Facebook shares initially slipped in extended trading following the news, dropping about 0.5 per cent then later turning positive. The stock had declined 4 per cent to a two-month low of US$343.21 in regular trading after warning that Apple's new limits on mobile apps' data collection will curb third-quarter results.

Before joining Facebook, Mr Schroepfer worked for Web browser maker Mozilla. A Stanford University graduate, he has become one of the most visible Facebook executives, often speaking at events and at Facebook's own annual developer conference. BLOOMBERG