It seems that Facebook is also entering the “Internet of Things” space just like Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon. The social network affirmed that it is testing a new service called M, a synthetically intelligent digital assistant within its Messenger service that can answer questions with live human help and also perform tasks like making reservations at a restaurant, ordering cake online or making travel arrangement.
M, an AI powered personal assistant, controlled by Facebook’s employees M-trainers, can respond to texts and questions asked by the users, and in some cases, also offers items to purchase or recommend places to go. However, if the software fails to comprehend any intricate query, M-trainers are able to make judgement calls in such cases. M will operate through leveraging the information that users provide through their current and previous conversation with M coupled with human trainers.
Trying to give a tough competition to the search engine dominant player Google, Facebook’s hoping that M might be able to engage users within its wall for a longer duration. To quote Mekhola Biswas, team leader from our social media team, “It is quite an exciting step towards enabling people on Messenger to get things done across variety of things, so that they can get more time to focus on what’s important in their lives.”
David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging, told Wired this week that M will start capturing a user’s intent and “intent often leads to buying something, or to a transaction, and that’s an opportunity for us to [make money] over time.”
Source: Huffington post
