Earlier this week, Facebook made the most recent move in the ongoing race for global tech dominance by launching its new virtual assistant, M.
According to Wired, a few hundred Facebook users in the Bay Area will find M in their Messenger apps today. The select group will be prompted to test it out by requesting example tasks to be completed—like making dinner reservations and booking travel.
But, unlike Apple‘s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Now, M is powered by both artificial intelligence and real people—a hybrid between tech-only virtual assistants and companies like Magic and Operator, who employ workers to answer text-based requests. The human component of M is a band of Facebook employees called “M trainers,” whose job is to see that all requests are answered.
Wired states that “Facebook’s goal is to make Messenger the first stop for mobile discovery,” in the same way that Google has the lock on desktop searches. Read more about it over at Wired, and, since it seems like the once distant fiction seems to grow more and more realistic every day, start making room in your place for your own personal R2-D2. Uh, we mean BB-8.
