Amazon's Alexa can summon an Uber and satisfy a four-year-old's demand for fart noises. Siri can control your Internet-connected thermostat. Each serve millions of users each day. But a lucky group of around 10,000 people, mostly in California, know that Facebook's assistant, named M, is the smartest of the bunch.
Recommend and reserve a romantic hotel in Morocco that's also suitable for small children? No problem. Get quotes from local contractors for landscaping your front yard? Consider it done. Facebook's experimental assistant, offered inside the company's Messenger app, shows the value of having a true digital butler in your pocket. Instead of just retrieving simple pieces of information from databases, M can understand complex orders and take actions like booking theater tickets or contacting companies for information.
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