Facebook advances chatbots on Messenger with new developer tools

Businesses and developers will be able to make their services available inside Messenger by way of Chat SDK. Powered by artificial intelligence, chatbots are computer software programs that mimic human conversations. Facebook says three times as many messages are sent on its platforms than SMS, with 60 billion messages a day sent and received on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The news comes just weeks after Microsoft devoted a large chunk of its Build developer conference keynote to what its executives called "conversations as a platform". AI is already used in Messenger, and can do things like recognise faces in pictures to suggest potential recipients.