Facebook Launches M, Its Bold Answer to Siri and Cortana

Today, a few hundred Bay Area Facebook users will open their Messenger apps to discover M, a new virtual assistant. Facebook will prompt them to test it with examples of what M can do: Make restaurant reservations. Find a birthday gift for your spouse. It won't take long for Messenger's users to realize M can accomplish much more than your standard digital helper, suspects David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook. "It can perform tasks that none of the others can," Marcus says.