M isn’t just for James Bond any more. Facebook have borrowed Dame Judy Dench’s 007 title for their newly revealed digital assistant, which lives inside the social network’s Messenger service.

The existence of M isn’t surprising, there’s been talk of Facebook testing a digital assistant for a while. And while the name being passed around was technically incorrect, it was also Bond-themed. Messenger will be the place where you’ll see M in action and the Siri-competitor will be able to do all sort for users.

‘All sorts’ being shorthand for booking reservations, locating gifts and even reserving accommodation for a weekend away.And it’ll do these things relatively well because M is set to be a combination of artificial intelligence and human smarts. That’s quite a bit of advantage over the likes of Cortana and co. Of course these services are designed for use in the States and there’s no telling just how much of this would work here in South Africa.

M has announced by Facebook’s David Marcus, on Facebook fittingly enough, but it’ll still be a while before M becomes ubiquitous. For now the assistant is being test-driven by users in San Francisco with a broader rollout on the cards based on these early tests.

Source: Wired