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BACK IN MARCH, Facebook announced a couple of new additions to its Messenger service as a way of turning it into its own platform.
Now it’s preparing to take its biggest step forward with the introduction of M, an experimental feature that is part digital assistant (think Siri and Google Now), part call centre.
The service is only available to a select few in San Francisco but the aim is to make this a global feature, where all users will refer to it any time they’re looking for suggestions or help.
So what is M?
The idea of M is presented as a virtual assistant, one that can make reservations, find you a birthday gift, and provide suggestions for getaways before helping you book one. It works by simply messaging it before receiving a reply with your answer.
Perhaps the most interesting part is that M isn’t fully autonomous. Instead, it will be artificial intelligence (AI) that’s both trained and supervised by people. The reason for this is that there are tasks and judgements that AI isn’t capable of completing yet.
While the goal is to have M working on its own and learning from patterns so it will eventually be able to carry out more complicated tasks, vice president of messaging products David Marcus told Wired it may have to hire thousands of trainers in the future to help keep up with demand.
Facebook already has put in a lot of work into AI, having its own division dedicated to research in the area, but it’s still very much in the rudimentary stages.
So what are Facebook’s plans for it?
To note, this is still in the experimentation phase so a rollout across the US, let alone globally, will happen slowly.
Yet like all Facebook services, the aim is to get enough people using it regularly first before introducing a revenue stream. If you’re not paying with money, then you’re paying with data and M will naturally be geared towards the latter.
Speaking to Wired, Marcus said the aim is to create a virtual assistant so powerful it would be the first thing everybody will use when they’re looking for something to do or if they want to buy something.
We start capturing all of your intent for the things you want to do… Intent often leads to buying something, or to a transaction, and that’s an opportunity for us to [make money] over time.
Before he joined Facebook, Marcus was with PayPal so he has experience with running payments services. Messenger already has its own payments service in the US and that’s one of the things driving M, the ability to pay for goods and services quickly and easily.
For now, M only uses the data you tell it within the Messenger app instead of taking data from your main Facebook profile, but if it did, it would gives it a significant advantage over other digital assistants.
Whether Facebook will use that data gathered for other reasons, targeted advertising for example, isn’t clear.
It’s something that Buzzfeed Tech has expressed concern about. Personal assistants thrive on knowing as much as possible about you, either through your actions or what you tell it.
With M, Facebook will also be collecting and storing information about where you go to dinner, what you bought your niece for her birthday, and how much you’re willing to spend on concert tickets. While the company isn’t selling that data to third parties right now, there’s no doubt that the better an automated assistant serves you, the more it has to know about you. There’s no such thing as a free secretary.
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I have a chipper beside me that I treat myself to every couple of months. Lovely burger and chips for under a tenner. I was in town recently and decided to get a McDonald’s for the first time in years. What a load of muck. Seriously, the chips are awful and burgers are muck. Go to your local chipper and ignore McDonald’s. It just shows that marketing really affects people decisions (mine included) because it’s not the food that brings people there.
I prefer McDonald’s to local chipper.
McFlurry…….mmmmmmmm.
Or better yet treat yourself to a burger from Bunsen, Wow Burger, or Frit Haus!
The new O’Sanders burger from KFC looks amazing.
This report concerns the US where a lot of the ingredients used are not permitted to be used in Europe. I would be interested to see the same report in relation to Europe.
Stick with the dogfood. Healthier.
No doubt TTIP will clear any roadblocks for US ingredients here.
Processed junk food? IT CAN’T BE!!!!!
Your kids will be obese if you bring them a few times a week. Cook something healthy for them instead would be the better option.
So people are copping on to the fact that regularly eating crap food is bad for you!
I don’t think they are. Every street corner in America has a fast food restaurant. It’s amazing! You could be in a tiny town in the back arse of nowhere and there will be 5 or 6 fast food places. It’s like Ireland and its pubs.
McSh*t.
A few times a week???? Your kids will be huge
Their food kills people!
100% of people who eat McDonald’s will die. Fact.
So does penicillin Conor.
Maybe if they treated the communities that they operate in with respect those communities would support them. I have not been inside one of their stores in 4 years because of their contempt for my community.
Mc Donald’s is a Restaurant
Just a though… Could there be a correlation between McDonalds introducing a “healthy” menu and Americans not eating there in the numbers they used to ?
Thought not tough
Though even…
You realise Ireland is not fatty behind on the obesity scale and catching up quick right?
*far behind
Lol Seth. Nice Freudian slip!
I can’t fault them at all, bring the kids there for a treat a few times a week, main course and dessert for under a tenner, not many restaurants can match that. I also think that the fact that they only use beef and a pinch of salt reassuring.
“Beef”
Big difference between made ‘with’ and made ‘from’ 100% Irish beef……
Beef???? It’s only called beef because it comes from a cow but dont let the word beef fool you into thinking that it is a fine cut of loin of fillet. As with most burgers it is pure crap that goes into them, the same goes for chicken burgers and nuggets. Look, a treat once in a while is fine but a few times a week can’t be good
Surely a pisss take!
Well maybe not a few times a week but at least twice we live across from one. It’s drive thru only after 11 so some times I would bring them for a milkshake if they are struggling to sleep. So maybe twice for dinner and the odd time to help them sleep
Bring them for a milkshake after 11 pm if they can’t sleep ? .. I’m sure ya do …
Only if they are awake.
No ones biting, poor you.
Spoke too soon! Suzie Dont reply to it.
Lol Ger
Lol sorry Ger. .
Tee hee hee..
Haha brillo pads. Let’s all go to Maccas!
@Free. Well it would be a bit weird if you brought them if they were asleep lol
I treated myself to a Big Mac meal and also a chicken sandwich one afternoon recently, thinking it would fill me up nicely and that it would save me cooking something later that evening.
How wrong I was. One big belch 10 minutes later and I was hungry again!
The problem with McDonalds is that if you have a fiver, you won’t get filled up, whereas with a chipper you can get something off the menu to keep you satisfied for hours. Even a bag of chips does more than a full priced McDonalds meal.
Yet another sign that the end of the world is nigh
That escalated quickly!
offer free guns?
All day breakfast would be great to have here though…
The sausage egg biscuit & the mcgriddle are fantastic.
I prefer the Krusty burger with cheese. Much tastier.
I prefer crusty imitation brand gruel, nine out of ten orphans can’t tell the difference!
Ah Funky, is that crusty imitation brand gruel just an imitation of Krusty Brand Imitation Gruel? Christ the penny pinching is getting a bit extreme these days.
wow..how isnt it amazing how a mc donalds article brings out all the trolls. must be something in the food.
You must love McDonald’s so Jen. Welcome on board.
Do they have Krusty-Partially-Gelatinated-Non-Dairy-Gum-Based-Beverages?
Eh watch the videos on you tube of the cruelty Mac Donald’s meat comes from and what the animals go through being slaughtered!! I have become a vegan and maybe people should be aware of the hell animals are put through in order for burgers to be made and not to be looked upon just as junk food it’s far more than that maybe looking through glass of slaughter houses will get people to realise this is the cruel world we live in . Allot of this is covered up
Welcome to the top of the food chain. Enjoy the tofu
A huge amount of mcdonalds european burger are made in ireland. Its cull cow beef , ie. The cows you see in fields through out ireland…not kept in cages … admittedly by the lptime they’re made into burgers it isnt the best beef… but what do you expect..
Mc Donald’s doesn’t kill people, people kill people
who eats this muck?
It’s one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Changing the price of a big mac affects the US economy. So to answer your question a few people do
Shite service, that’s why. Throw in the food and, well…
And I don’t mean the Irish restaurants, I mean the US ones that I’ve visited. Seems to be a “how-low-can-we-go?” challenge at times
have your say