Facebook updates 'M' — removing humans from virtual assistant

Facebook is saying farewell to "M," its human-led virtual assistant — at least in its current form, The Verge reported on Monday.  

The product, available via Facebook Messenger, was released back in August 2015 and available only to about 2,000 people in California. It combined artificial intelligence with real humans to complete tasks for users like sending flowers. 

Back then, Facebook pitched the idea as a "beta" test and made it available to a handful of users, but members of the team implied it would be expanded. Facebook's Messenger chief David Marcus told The Verge back in 2016 that M wouldn't be broadly available for "years." Read more...