Facebook is rolling out its answer to Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. But instead of using only artificial intelligence to answer your questions, Facebook's assistant is augmented by real human brainpower. Meet M, Facebook's new personal assistant.
Unlike Siri and Cortana, M won't have a voice. Once it's fully rolled out, M will live in Facebook's Messenger app, and you'll communicate via text. It can tell you jokes like all the others, but it goes beyond its competitors by making appointments for you or booking hotels.
Facebook M has slowly been rolling out on Messenger on iPhones and Androids over the last few months, and it's caught the attention of one BuzzFeed employee who couldn't wait to see everything it could do.
First, he wondered if M would lie to him, by asking M if he looked OK. He sent M a selfie of him brushing his teeth and asked, "How do I look?" M told him he looked great.
Next he wondered if M could get him a puppy. M came back with helpful suggestion, including just renting a puppy for the day from a local company. See the conversation below:
That's when the BuzzFeed employee got an even better idea: Send a friend a parrot to his office. Yes, a real live parrot. Could M do it?
Not only did M find and send the parrots, it also negotiated for a lower price!
Here's a Tweet from the friend in his office with the parrots.
Thanks for the assist, BuzzFeed bird. pic.twitter.com/7GFgxZdMKg
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) October 28, 2015
What do you think about M's new capabilities? Cool or freaky? Let us know what you think by posting in the comments below.