Facebook has just unveiled a new artificial intelligence powered virtual assistant called the M which has the ability to complete tasks and finds information on your behalf. The M assistant is embedded in the messenger application with functions of being able to make reservations, getting a beautiful gift for your spouse or lover and even booking weekend getaways.
The vice president of messaging products at Facebook David Marcus made mention that “It’s powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by people,” He also said Facebook is doing for virtual assistants what music streaming services have done for curated radio stations — use human beings.
To use it, users will message “M” the same way they’d message anyone else on Messenger. Start by asking it a question the same as any other virtual assistant, only M will followup with additional questions, eventually allowing the user to book a table at a restaurant or whatever else. The user will never know if or when they’re talking with a robot, or an actual person.
With respect to making money, an example can be seen in cases of Facebook establishing relationships with certain product or service vendors, earning a cut for making them M’s go-to provider for certain requests.
This new development leaves us to more choices of virtual assistants.
