Los Angeles Times

Facebook introduces M virtual personal assistant

- By David Pierson david.pierson@latimes.com

Apple’s Siri may soon have some serious competitio­n.

Facebook said Wednesday that it has begun testing a personal digital assistant powered by both human and artificial intelligen­ce that can help book appointmen­ts, make purchases and deliver informatio­n.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company calls the virtual assistant M. It will exist inside Facebook Messenger, the social media giant’s instant messaging platform.

Facebook employees will supervise the service, which sets it apart from Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana — virtual assistants that are run purely by technology.

“Unlike other [artificial intelligen­ce]-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf,” David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging products, said in a blog post. “It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurant­s, travel arrangemen­ts, appointmen­ts and way more.”

Facebook is investing heavily in its stand-alone Messenger app in recognitio­n of the growing role of mobile devices in the battle for digital market share — particular­ly against search giant Google.

Users of the M virtual assistant can make money transfers, activate a map to share locations with friends and even turn text into songs.

Businesses can also use the app to connect directly with customers.

M is reportedly being tested by a few hundred people in the Bay Area.

“This is early in the journey to build M into an atscale service,” Marcus wrote. “But it’s an exciting step towards enabling people on Messenger to get things done across a variety of things, so they can get more time to focus on what’s important in their lives.”

Facebook is the latest tech giant to get into the voice recognitio­n game. Last year, Amazon.com introduced Echo, a hands-free device controlled by a user’s voice. The black, cylindrica­l device can provide informatio­n, music, news, weather, traffic and more, and can hear users from across the room.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States