Facebook's smart speakers with 'M' assistant may launch overseas first amid US privacy concerns

Facebook's smart speakers may be hitting the shelves soon after all. The social media giant was set to release a pair of voice-activated smart speakers at its F8 developers conference this week, but ultimately delayed the launch in the wake of its massive privacy scandal. Now, Facebook is considering rolling out the devices internationally, before possibly bringing them stateside to the US, CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was expected to unveil a pair of smart speakers at the firm's 2018 F8 developers conference, but the firm put those plans on hold after its privacy scandal The devices would come with a smart assistant built in that's connected to Facebook's artificial intelligence technology called'M'. However, it seems that the firm ended its role as a text-based virtual assistant, and now may have plans for M to serve as the technology powering its voice-activated digital assistant.