Tag: Digital Personal Assistant

Facebook Brings Out its Very Own Artificial Intelligence Assistant Named “M”

We all know about Siri, Cortana and Google Now, but yesterday our favourite social media platform, Facebook launched “M”. M is its very own text-based virtual assistant, which is also integrated with Facebook Messenger. What is different about M, is that it relies on both human and artificial intelligence to fulfill requests. This is something that both Siri and Cortana need to catch up on.

Reports suggest that there is a team of M Trainers, who are prepared and trained to fulfill requests that the artificial intelligence component cannot answer. It is also said, that as of now, the artificial intelligence does not have access to all the social data that Facebook collects and therefore has to depend on the information available through earlier conversations and follow-up questions. This however could change “with proper user consent” says Facebook’s VP of messaging products, David Marcus.

What makes M’s activities different from Siri, Cortana or Google Now? Well, an example of what it can do is this – it can allow people to get recommendations for vacations and restaurants for instance, and can also follow through with bookings or purchases.

David Marcus also added that Facebook is planning to hire thousands of M trainers in the future. This artificial intelligence assistant can be good for Facebook’s financial strength, since it can generate money via various partnerships with businesses.

The sad part is, that currently M is only available to residents of California’s Bay Area. This has been reported to be an intentional move, so as to, ensure commonality between M trainers and the people making requests. The product will be launched on Messenger apps all around the world, soon. Watch this space for more updates.

Source : [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://www.wired.com/2015/08/facebook-launches-m-new-kind-virtual-assistant/”]Wired [/tw-button]

August 27, 2015
BlackBerry’s Personal Assistant is Here To Take On Siri

By Pranav Arora

BlackBerry seriously needs to pull up its sleeves now. The smartphone market is slowly but surely being taken over by the three Silicon Valley giants – Apple, Google and Microsoft. BlackBerry needs to catch up. It needs to aim for the fourth position and give the market competitive alternative.

To achieve this BlackBerry has decided to start with a personal voice assistant. Announced officially on the company’s blog, BlackBerry Assistant (BB Assistant) is the latest new feature that we can expect in the BlackBerry OS 10.3 launch. Taking clues from the top dogs of the game; Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana. BB Assistant is BB’s own little assistant that lives inside your Blackberry smartphone.

The tiles design reminds you of Windows OS

In terms of design, it’s uncannily similar to the likes of Cortana and Siri. It appears as a small mic-in-a-cirle that pulsates when you talk to it. Along with it is a basic tile layout for other instructions and information. BlackBerry is going for the formal, business look that they’ve been known for, and it shows.

Blackberry claims BB provides all features provided by other Personal Assistants

In BlackBerry’s words “the BB Assistant will keep you organized, informed and productive.” So what can it really do? While BB hasn’t released a full feature list yet, you can expect BB Assistant to do pretty much what we’ve come to expect from the dominant personal assistants. It can call people, send BBM/text messages, set reminders and alarms for you, read out and write emails and check Twitter trends if that’s your thing.

Like Google Now’s latest feature, BB Assistant will be in an ‘always on’ state which means; you can trigger it through a voice command without actually closing the application you’re in. Pretty neat. BB also claims that it’ll get better with multiple usages, by learning your habits and needs.

This is clearly not a new feature by brought out by BlackBerry. They’re not even trying to promote it as new. The other competitors have had quite a bit of a head start. But as an attempt to catch up, BB Assistant is not a bad attempt in any way. Things might get better for BlackBerry. They really need to.

July 17, 2014
Cortana : Is Microsoft Ready For a Catfight With Siri

Siri with her lovely voice introduced the concept of personal assistants (PA) on phones. It was the closest people could get to own their own JARVIS and wasn’t she one snarky lady. Google tried to match up to her, but they could only muster up a personality less voice.

Microsoft is now bringing its answer to Siri and this woman comes directly from the world of Halo. She has been called one of the sexiest women in video game history and GameTrailers put her in the “top 10 babes who are out of your league” list (which for gamers is probably every woman ever.) She was originally based on the Egyptian princess Nerfititi and her name is CORTANA.

Microsoft sure released an impressive introduction video for her:

Cortana was the name Microsoft used during the development process of the app. But as the developers themselves had been in love with her during their endless sessions of Halo, they pressured Microsoft to let the name be for the Artificial Intelligence infused, Windows phone 8.1 personal assistant app.

What Microsoft is really banking on though is Cortana’s ability to “chitchat” with the user. It reminds you of Scarlett Johansson-voiced character Samantha, from the movie ‘Her’. Though don’t get your hopes up yet or be discouraged that she will leave you like Samantha (or Scarlett) left Joaquin Phoenix, because Cortana is just starting out. If Microsoft’s history is to be considered, she will at most disappear behind a blue screen of death (tsk.)

The personality of Cortana is directly inspired by her AI counterpart in Halo. ‘363 Industries’ which produces Halo, was roped in to provide the backstory and character elements for the PA app. These character elements may be what gives Cortana the edge over Siri. Even if its just the predetermined responses, Cortana can carry out a flowy conversation with its user. Maybe someday she will evolve into a personal associate rather than just a personal assistant.

On the Utility front, Cortana (I am trying to use less pronouns for ‘her’ because that’s one sexy name) provides all the functions that Siri and Google Now offer; like setting reminders and calendar, weather and traffic information, writing notes and messages.

The Siri update in the iOS 8 hasn’t been a significant one. Apple has focused more on the interconnectivity element of the OS. They have also integrated Shazam with Siri with other minor tweaks to the app.

This might actually work in Microsoft’s favor. If the users are really able to have a conversation with an Artificially Intelligent PA and enjoy it, they wouldn’t really care about Shazam integration of Siri. For once, Microsoft might take a page out of Apple’s book of taking inspirations from existing technology and turning into revolutionary new idea. Cortana also looks beautiful with the two concentric circles which gets her activated.

Though Cortana doesn’t have natural conversational ability like Samantha, but somehow her semi-robotic voice has its own sex appeal. Microsoft has plans to bring Cortana to countries like UK and China though that would involve going back to recreating the database for a whole new language or accent. That bet will only payout if she performs as per her marketing hype.

As we don’t have access to her yet, we will wait to give you in-depth updates on whether Cortana can be your next best companion.

June 5, 2014