Remember the rumored Facebook Messenger Personal Assistant sworn to be better than Siri, Cortana? Well, the rumors, it turns out, is true!
Anytime soon, Facebook Messenger will no longer be used to send messages alone but it can make important tasks such as making restaurant reservations and booking flights among others.
Thanks to 'M,' a new feature embedded on Facebook messenger app to act as a personal assistant.
"M can actually complete tasks on your behalf," announced David Marcus, vice president of Facebook messaging products in a Facebook post. "It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more,"
Today we're beginning to test a new service called M. M is a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger that...
Posted by David Marcus on Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Marcus is also confident that 'M' is better than other AI-based products like Apple's Siri and Window's Cortana, since it is controlled by real people aside from technology.
"It can perform tasks that none of the others can," Marcus said in an interview with Wired.
"That's because, in addition to using artificial intelligence to complete its tasks, 'M' is powered by actual people," he said. "Because of this, it is often referred to as a 'hybrid.'"
Users only need to send a request to 'M' by toggling buttons at the bottom of their Face Messenger app similar to sending a message to a friend. It then asks further details and updates from the user until the request is completed.
'M' gets information from the previous conversations between the technology and the user has had in the Facebook Messenger.
The people behind 'M,' mostly have customer service backgrounds and are trained to supervise the AI.
Currently, it is being tested by Facebook employees to complete tasks such as organizing a party.
"An engineer went to Paris for a couple days, and his friend asked 'M' to redecorate his desk in a French style," said Marcus. "Twenty-four hours later, the desk was decorated with a proper napkin, baguette bread, and a beret."
Aside from being both a human-supported and computer-assisted app, what sets 'M' apart other competitors is that the commands are messaged rather than spoken.
"Putting the assistant inside of Messenger is smart, because people are used to tapping out messages to people, rather than speak commands like its competitors sometimes require," wrote Techcrunch.
This new feature is still yet being enjoyed by the people of San Francisco Bay to test and expand its capabilities. And it would take a little bit more time until reaches its full-blown success.
