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Facebook Is Now Working On Its Own Digital Assistant Called M

Posted by samzenpus on from the getting-a-little-help dept.

Mark Wilson writes: Sounding like a character from a James Bond movie, M is Facebook's personal digital assistant. Ready to compete with the likes of Cortana, M will live inside Facebook Messenger and take artificial intelligence a step further. Rather than just helping you to find information or create calendar entries, M will actually perform tasks on your behalf.

Once up and running, M will be able to book restaurants for you, purchase shopping, and more. It will also be possible to use the service to ask for advice — such as looking for somewhere to visit nearby, or gift suggestions — and Facebook says the AI behind M is "trained and supervised by people".

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:M? Really? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you noticed that all those examples of "helping" their customers are examples of purchasing goods and services? Why don't they call it what it is: an intelligent advertising agent.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Don't trust M! by BringMyShuttle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    M can't keep a confidence. Blab Blab Blab. A real gossip. Keeps passing around my photos without my permission. And told her I was thinking of buying a new TV. Next thing you know I'm being bombarded by TV salespeople. I think she told them. What sort a friend does that? Even more crass: I think she even solicited money off them for for info!

    PS. Does anyone else think Cortana would be better if it spoke in Bill Gates voice? :-D

  3. Re:M? Really? by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm more curious about the statements made by the zuck about how we should not mess with AI stuff. Does he mean that it's ok if the best and brightest douchebags create it?

  4. Re:Facebook's M by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No. M won't be a spy. This is Facebook: they don't have to spy on you. You voluntarily tell M everything, an illustrated guide to all your drunken follies with innocent friends helpfully tagged, and then you bitch about it when M gets creepy and seems to know too much about you.

    The Onion is not satire.