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Facebook is Working on a Voice Assistant To Rival Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri, Report Says (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the I-mean-why-not dept.

Facebook is working on a voice assistant to rival the likes of Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and the Google Assistant, CNBC reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The tech company has been working on this new initiative since early 2018. The effort is coming out of the company's augmented reality and virtual reality group, a division that works on hardware, including the company's virtual reality Oculus headsets. A team based out of Redmond, Washington, has been spearheading the effort to build the new AI assistant, according to two former Facebook employees who left the company in recent months. The effort is being lead by Ira Snyder, director of AR/VR and Facebook Assistant. That team has been contacting vendors in the smart speaker supply chain, according to two people familiar. It's unclear how exactly Facebook envisions people using the assistant, but it could potentially be used on the company's Portal video chat smart speakers, the Oculus headsets or other future projects.

18 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Nah... by samdu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...I'm good. Stay over there, Facebook, and I'll stay over here and everything will be fine.

  2. I've had better conversations by elainerd · · Score: 1

    with Eliza than I've ever had with an AI. She really got me, you know, as a person.

    --
    Faith: Belief in Truth. Superstition: Belief in Falsehood.
  3. "Hi Zuck" by thesjaakspoiler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    and the Zuck talking back to you. Now that would feel like a real home invasion knowing that everything you just said is being stored forever and resold to th highest bidder 15 times a day.

    1. Re:"Hi Zuck" by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was thinking more like “Zuck Off” and it records in high fidelity.

    2. Re:"Hi Zuck" by Solandri · · Score: 1

      I think it'll be more like a creepy stalker in terms of how much personal info it knows about you.

      "Facebook, order me a box of Doritos."
      "I've placed an order for a box of Doritos, Cool Ranch style as is your preference. Your party photos show you usually drink IPA beer with Doritos, and I've also noticed it's been a week since you last ordered a case of beer. You usually go through about a case a week. Would you like me to add a case of IPA beer to the order?"
      "..."

      or

      "Facebook, how's the commute to work look?"
      "Traffic is light, and weather is 73 degrees and partly cloudy. You should expect a commute time of 27 minutes. According to your phone location logs, on Fridays you usually head to your girlfriend's house after work. Have you thought of popping the question? I've noticed that several of her searches this week have been 'how long do people date before a marriage proposal.'"
      "Are you seriously giving me unsolicited dating advice?"
      "I thought it was warranted since she also visited sites detailing condom failure rates, and the accuracy of pregnancy tests. You may be forced to make a decision one way or another rather soon."
      "..."

    3. Re: "Hi Zuck" by tsa · · Score: 1

      My god that looks like a conversationm between Michael and KITT.

      --

      -- Cheers!

  4. FacistBook in your home? by flajann · · Score: 1

    If it does not like the topic of conversation, will it shut itself down for 30 days just to "teach you a lesson?"

    --
    Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
    1. Re:FacistBook in your home? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      If it does not like the topic of conversation, will it shut itself down for 30 days just to "teach you a lesson?"

      No, it will just shadow ban you and you won't even be able to hear yourself.

  5. People are still use Facebook? by johnsie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're still using Facebook, despite all the information and bad news that has already been released about them, then they deserve to be spied on. Seriously people need to be getting off their systems and blocking the embedded Facebook images (often hosted on Facebook's servers) and tracking scripts that are on third party sites. It's nothing more than a data mining tool that is also used by psychopaths to manipulate people.

    1. Re:People are still use Facebook? by markdavis · · Score: 2

      >"If you're still using Facebook, despite all the information and bad news that has already been released about them, then they deserve to be spied on."

      Those people who DO use Facebook are ALSO spying on us who have never used it, who also don't deserve to be spied on. Members upload damn photos that include non-participants and FB figures that out and add all those third-parties in photos to their system.... creating "shadow" profiles on non-participants. FB sucks contact information from members about third-parties. They collect information from third-parties through web tracking. They scour text of their member postings for third-parties. It is like a relentless beast.

    2. Re: People are still use Facebook? by tsa · · Score: 1

      Yes, people use Facebook. Get over it.

      --

      -- Cheers!

  6. Re:The Google Assistant is... by Bruinwar · · Score: 1

    Yep & the only one that actually understands what I am saying consistently. The Nameless One.

    --
    SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
  7. Youth culture and Facebook by christopher.carver · · Score: 3, Funny

    Though my son's high school and surrounding area is such a small space, I found the term "such a Zuck" to be an interesting one among the teenagers. When I ask him what "Zuck" meant, his reply was it means perv and invading of personal space. I asked my nieces (middle and high schoolers) if they use Facebook and their replies were no, that what moms use to show off and get angry about.

    From my view, FB's runway is a short one.

    1. Re:Youth culture and Facebook by iampiti · · Score: 1

      Young people stopped using Facebook a long time ago. Now it's for "old" people. I don't know what the kids use (is Snapchat still a thing?) but it's not Facebook

    2. Re: Youth culture and Facebook by BellyJelly · · Score: 1

      No, they use Instagram and WhatsApp.

  8. I'll take... by thomn8r · · Score: 1

    "Shit nobody wanted" for $1200, Alex

  9. Facebook is the Windows of social networks by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

    Facebook is going to have a pretty hard time moving forward with its own brand.

    Like Windows users, Facebook users seldom use it because they like it, so much as it's just the de facto standard that everyone else uses, and the network effect is tough to overcome. Instagram and Whatsapp were good acquisitions for them because they don't (yet?) have the stigma Facebook does.

    The question will be whether Facebook tries to sell their personal assistant using its own brand, or if it will attempt to leverage known data in order to stand out from Alexa and Siri. I see that as being a catch-22 though - if they do, I think many people might think it's too far. If not, there's no advantage over the more popular solutions.

  10. Fake news by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Now you can get your fake news read out loud to you!