Facebook Beats Apple to AI Assistant Chat Integration With 'M' For Messenger

[MacRumors]

Facebook announced its first virtual assistant on Thursday in the form of "M", which privately interjects in chat threads on Messenger to offer users suggestions related to the conversation.

The feature goes beyond the platform's chat bot technology, offering recommendations for relevant stickers, GIFs, payments, rides and meeting times now appear to each user above the message composer in chat threads. The service launched as a beta test in December but was rolled out to all iOS and Android users in the U.S. as part of an app update.

According to Facebook, M relies on AI machine learning techniques and is capable of learning the more it is used. Users can ignore or dismiss suggestions if they're not helpful, and the assistant can easily be muted it in settings. The full list of possible suggestions are as follows.

Sending stickers: M shares fun sticker suggestions for your daily life interactions like "Thank you" or "Bye-bye."

Paying or requesting money: M recognizes when people are discussing payments and gives them the option of easily sending or requesting money.

Sharing your location: M can suggest an option to share your location during a conversation.

Making plans: If people are talking about getting together, M helps coordinating a plan.

Starting a poll (in group conversations only): Have a hard time making decisions in a group? M lets you set a poll topic and vote in group conversations.

Getting a Ride: Talking about going somewhere? M suggests "Get A Ride" and shares an option of Lyft or Uber.Apple is known to have looked at a similar implementation of Siri in its iMessage platform. A patent published last November for a "virtual assistant in a communication session" depicts a scenario in which users can invoke Siri from within chat threads to get answers to relevant queries, complete scheduling tasks, and more.

A rumor last month claimed that Apple plans to introduce Siri iMessage integration in iOS 11, which is expected to be announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference held in June. The feature is said to be part of a major upgrade to Siri's capabilities that would fit out the virtual assistant with powerful contextual learning abilities and iCloud integration.

Article Link: Facebook Beats Apple to AI Assistant Chat Integration With 'M' For Messenger

 

[jase1125]

Another good reason to uninstall this bloated mess. I don't want sticker recommendations, polls or any other bs recommendations. Technology like this isn't being particularly helpful, it is being obtrusive. As days go buy, I dislike Facebook and relevant apps they own more and more.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

M performs facial recognition on your baby pictures and determines there isn't anything even the most advanced AI can do to fix that kind of ugly.

 

[Kajje]

M for My God, Facebook and the likes are really monitoring every word I say.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Another good reason to uninstall this bloated mess. I don't want sticker recommendations, polls or any other bs recommendations. Technology like this isn't being particularly helpful, it is being obtrusive. As days go buy, I dislike Facebook and relevant apps they own more and more.

Facebook is a $400B ad delivery network. Everything they do is designed to keep your eyeballs on their pages. Nothing more.

 

[6836838]

So so close to removing myself from that social network. Another step closer.

 

[jase1125]

Facebook is a $400B ad delivery network. Everything they do is designed to keep your eyeballs on their pages. Nothing more.

Clearly. Everyone knows that, but this is going in the opposite direction. This is making me (and others I presume) want to permanently takes my eyes off of their properties.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Clearly. Everyone knows that, but this is going in the opposite direction. This is making me (and others I presume) want to permanently takes my eyes off of their properties.

Why wait?

 

[Juicy Box]

Facebook is a $400B ad delivery network. Everything they do is designed to keep your eyeballs on their pages. Nothing more.

Clearly. Everyone knows that, but this is going in the opposite direction. This is making me (and others I presume) want to permanently takes my eyes off of their properties.

What kind of ads are on facebook? Like video ads on YouTube?

 

[jase1125]

Why wait?

Who said I am? Other people have many reasons like contacts, etc. Of course you knew this already. We know why you asked the question....
[doublepost=1491566996][/doublepost]

What kind of ads are on facebook? Like video ads on YouTube?

Not many video, but in the feed there are many ads for products and services. Typically ones your contacts supposedly likes too. I don't care about the ads so much. It's all the other crazy decisions.

 

[DoctorDoctor]

Facebook is a $400B ad delivery network. Everything they do is designed to keep your eyeballs on their pages. Nothing more.

Well of course it is designed that way. They are a business and that is how they make their money. I do everything in my powers to keep my customers too.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Who said I am? Other people have many reasons like contacts, etc. Of course you knew this already. We know why you asked the question....

Take it easy, im not trolling. It's a serious question. If everybody knows it's essentially just a big billboard, why use it?

 

[unibility]

so much for protecting user privacy.

 

[Rogifan]

Do average consumers really want this stuff? it seems like these days we have solutions searching for a problem because companies are obsessed with people thinking they are innovative.

 

[nameischarles]

So so close to removing myself from that social network. Another step closer.

But in the end you know you won't leave

 

[6836838]

But in the end you know you won't leave

In the end, you know you have no idea.

 

[jessejarvi]

AI version of M, built by Q and the folks at MI6

 

[C DM]

Take it easy, im not trolling. It's a serious question. If everybody knows it's essentially just a big billboard, why use it?

You can't imagine why some people might have some use for a social network like Facebook?

 

[dwaltwhit]

Facebook is a $400B ad delivery network. Everything they do is designed to keep your eyeballs on their pages. Nothing more.

Early on, the customers stopped being the users; they were the ones paying money to advertise to users.

 

[Khalanad75]

Are we sure that Apple was even working on this?

 

[coolfactor]

So so close to removing myself from that social network. Another step closer.

I haven't used Facebook (with any level of engagement) for months now. I still have my account and occassionally drop in there simply to check something related to my work (a client's page, etc.), but don't spend any time just "socializing". I've tried many times in the past to wean myself off of it, but wasn't able to until my life got much busier with a girlfriend. hehe

I'm much happier now.
[doublepost=1491583935][/doublepost]And Facebook just announced that business pages will be free.

 

[Mactendo]

Apple just piles patents while others are making real products out of the same ideas. Keyboards, touch desktops, smart chat assistants...

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

You can't imagine why some people might have some use for a social network like Facebook?

Frankly, no. There are many, many other ways to network and share with friends without the intrusiveness, fake news, advertisements, click-bait, like-bait, etc... To me it's like meeting your friends in the middle of Times Square to socialize. It's unsophisticated and just not the best place for it.

 

[C DM]

Frankly, no. There are many, many other ways to network and share with friends without the intrusiveness, fake news, advertisements, click-bait, like-bait, etc... To me it's like meeting your friends in the middle of Times Square to socialize. It's unsophisticated and just not the best place for it.

As there are ways to use Facebook without dealing with most of that extraneous stuff. (And I'm sure plenty of people meet i places like Times Square to socialize or do something without any feelings of anything being "unsophisticated").

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Well of course it is designed that way. They are a business and that is how they make their money. I do everything in my powers to keep my customers too.

Well, yes, from a purely business perspective, I guess all they should look out for is ad impressions. However, it's not that simple is it. People have invested so much time in this platform that they (at least before November 2016) began to think of it as more than just an ad-based sharing service. They began to trust it as a media source. You might think those people are naive or foolish, but it's a reality, and because of the nature of such a platform, it's reality on a massive scale.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly insisted they're a tech company not a media outlet. While that may be true, it's undeniable they have benefited enormously from looking the other way on fake news and clickbait/likebait, the volume of which reached its peak during the election. We may never know the exact impact of Facebook's role in facilitating the dissemination this garbage, but when the Pope's fake endorsement is spread nearly 1 million times it’s not unreasonable to assume it might have been substantial.

Facebook might not be a media company, but they are the biggest force in the world in social media. With that kind of power comes additional responsibility. Even they agree they need start focusing on their users instead of solely on impressions.

Great article on this by Will Oremus at Slate here if you're interested.

As there are ways to use Facebook without dealing with most of that extraneous stuff. (And I'm sure plenty of people meet i places like Times Square to socialize or do something without any feelings of anything being "unsophisticated").

Clunky software unsophisticated, not "you're not glamorous or elite" unsophisticated (though the sophistication of Times Square, by any measure, is certainly debatable).