Facebook is getting into the personal assistant market, launching its answer to the offerings of fellow tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft.While the details are limited at this stage, Facebook Messaging Products VP David Marcus has revealed via a Facebook post that the personal digital assistant, called M, is now beginning testing, although no time-scale has been provided as to its rollout.
The service, designed to complete tasks and find information on the user’s behalf, will reside inside Messenger.
M stands out as a combination of AI and people power, with Marcus stating it is “powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by people”.
“Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf,” Marcus stated in announcing M’s testing.
“It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more.”
The move sees Facebook taking on the likes of Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana personal digital assistants, with Marcus noting that it is “early in the journey to build M into an at-scale service”.
The digital assistant market, which is in its early stages, may be becoming increasingly crowded, although with 700 million users on Messenger, it would appear that there is great scope for Facebook to make rapid progress in catching up to its tech peers.
