Facebook Wants To Give Us Human-Powered Virtual Assistants

Facebook’s ‘Moneypenny’, inspired by the secretary in the James Bond movies, will be powered by humans.  

Facebook Messenger has an interesting new concept it is working on. The Mark Zuckerberg led company is trying to go toe-to-toe with other virtual assistant providers. Facebook wants to give Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa a run for their money.

But aye, here is the rub. Unlike those virtual assistants which are powered by algorithms and AIs, Facebook’s will have more of a human touch. What now? Facebook’s ‘Moneypenny’, inspired by the secretary in the James Bond movies, will be powered by humans. 

I’m not entirely sure how effective will that be but innovation is always a good thing right? Well, most of the time. So instead of Siri or Cortana doing these things for you it would be actual people. They would research for stuff that you would need and whatnot. It won’t be fully automated anymore but does that mean if no ‘human virtual assistant’ is available you would have to wait in a queue? 

Facebook Messenger normally has up to 700 freaking million active monthly users. So how the hell will Facebook provide 700 freaking million assistants? Zuckerberg was challenged and he accepted it. Let’s see if Facebook bit off more than it can chew this time.