Facebook introduces “M” to the public
As always, Facebook who seems to be either the first or one of the firsts to do something new with a certain technology didn't disappoint. Facebook is the latest to join the list of the companies investing their time on Artificial Intelligence integrating their messenger with a new virtual assistant.
Facebook's virtual assistant is called "M". M is said to practically do almost everything that an actual assistant do. M can do things like arranging flowers to be delivered, warning you about the weather, get you those exclusive hard to get tickets to an upcoming epic movie sequel, and though M can't go pick up your laundry, it can arrange for it to be delivered.
Facebook is unveiling M as a n attempt to make their users to keep using their "Messenger" feature, and plans to eventually make people be able to do their shopping within Facebook. However Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer said, that since M is powered by an artificial intelligence technology which is still at a very early stage, M still needs to learn basic responses for popular commands while the human moderators takes care of the interactions with consumers.
Schroepfer further explains that while it is indeed an AI system it is still powered primarily by people who the AI backs up. The main feature that Facebook is aiming for is for the user to be able to ask M their own question, not just ask M a question from a limited list of options. Meaning it will have a wider coverage so, it will be able to help consumers on what they really need help with. By making it human powered instead of the normal machine powered AI system, Facebook are able to get a more real look into how the user would want to use M.
As of now, M is still being trained using a process where a computer learns by example from the teachings of human trainers; this process is called supervised learning. Soon, they hope that M will learn enough to be able to function without its human handler. Because of this, M for the meantime will only be available to a group of Silicon Valley's beta testers. Schroepfer further adds that M needs to be able to function with less assistance from its human operator before Facebook makes it more available to the public.
There is still no certainty whenever that is. But this new fad for fascination on AI seems to be a bit mind-boggling. Will it make things easier for people or will it bring relief, as in relieved from jobs because of being replaced by AI? One thing is for certain though, it isn't happening anytime soon. Probably.