M, AI and FB: How Facebook is Going to Become an Even Bigger Part of Your Everyday Life

Back in August, Facebook introduced'M', its new personal assistant tool which will live inside Messenger. Like Apple's'Siri' or Microsoft's'Cortana', users will be able to ask questions of M and have the system respond, via message, providing detailed information and assistance as required. Where M goes beyond those previous personal assistant services, however, is that M can do more complex tasks – like booking plane tickets, chasing up a refund on your behalf, or even finding the best deals and making purchases for you, at your request. In constructing M, Facebook's taken a slightly different path. While M is largely AI based, and responds to most queries based on algorithms, M also has a team of people working to help the system deal with more complex requests, stepping in when the system gets confused and providing additional assistance and advice on top of M's binary workings.