Facebook starts testing M, a personal digital assistant for Messenger

Facebook has started testing a new Facebook personal assistant feature, M. It will be available within the Messenger application to help users with day to days task upon request. 

For instance M will be able to "purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more". Think of it as Microsoft's Cortana or Apple's Siri solely used for chatting.

The personal digital assistant M is powered by artificial intelligence that is trained and supervised by people. A new button will appear in Messenger that will allow to activate M. You can ask it where to get pizza in Chicago, or use Messenger's built-in payments feature, or order gift for a family members or friends.

It is currently in beta and is used by a few hundred people in San Francisco Bay area for testing. Don't expect it to roll out soon.

Via