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Facebook Trials 'Human Powered' Rival To Siri

Facebook Trials 'Human Powered' Rival To Siri

Facebook has begun testing a new service to rival the likes of Siri and Cortana – with human supervision to satisfy the most complicated tasks.

Named "M", the virtual assistant has only been made available to a few hundred users in San Francisco so far.

However, it appears to be more sophisticated than offerings from Microsoft and Apple, because it can make restaurant reservations, organise gift deliveries and purchase items on your behalf.

The tool is embedded into Facebook Messenger, which currently boasts more than 700 million users.

David Marcus, a Facebook executive, wrote: "It's an exciting step towards enabling people on Messenger to get things done across a variety of things, so they can get more time to focus on what's important in their lives."

His Facebook post was accompanied by screenshots of "M", which show a user asking for gift ideas.

They ask: "My friends are having a baby! Can you help me find a good gift? They already have a bunch of clothes and toys."

M replies: "What about shoes?"

It then recommends a pair of shoes costing $30 (£19.37).

Mr Marcus, a former PayPal employee, told Wired magazine: "Intent often leads to buying something, or to a transaction, and that’s an opportunity for us to [make money] over time."

He also revealed examples where M had called customer service departments with long call waiting times, and connected the user when an operator was finally on the other end of the line.

Quirky requests also appear to be catered for.

"An engineer went to Paris for a couple days, and his friend asked M to redecorate his desk in a French style," Mr Marcus explained.

"Twenty-four hours later, the desk was decorated with a proper napkin, baguette bread, and a beret."