Deep Generative Modeling for Neural Compression

In December 2020, Facebook reported having around 1.8 billion daily active users and around 2.8 billion monthly active users (Facebook reports fourth quarter and full year 2020 results, 2020.). Assuming that users uploaded, on average, a single photo each day, the resulting volume of data would give a very rough (let me stress it, a very rough) estimate of around 3000 TB of new images per day. This single case of Facebook alone already shows us the potential great costs associated with storing and transmitting data. In the digital era, we can simply say this: efficient and effective manner of handling data (i.e., faster and smaller) means more money in the pocket.