"M" because Talking is Tough

We're all becoming creatures of convenience - and it's not quite clear yet whether artificial intelligence (AI) is helping us achieve our short- and long-term goals or hurting us when it comes to what we expect "machines" to do. 

With such a large user base, Facebook is on its way to changing consumer expectations about how readily available AI qualities should be. The social media network recently announced that its AI experiment "M" is now available to all Messenger users in the U.S. Here's a list of what "M" can do (as published on Facebook's blog post):

• Sending stickers: M shares fun sticker suggestions for your daily life interactions like “Thank you” or “Bye-bye.”
• Paying or requesting money: M recognizes when people are discussing payments and gives them the option of easily sending or requesting money.
• Sharing your location: M can suggest an option to share your location during a conversation.
• Making plans: If people are talking about getting together, M helps coordinating a plan.
• Starting a poll (in group conversations only): Have a hard time making decisions in a group? M lets you set a poll topic and vote in group conversations.
• Getting a Ride: Talking about going somewhere? M suggests “Get A Ride” and shares an option of Lyft or Uber.

From a human perspective, "M" is pretty embarrassing. From a tech point of view, it's impressive. We can't be bothered to think for ourselves, but the capability is there, which means that people are going to expect websites across industries to become more in tune with what they want and proactively serve an experience (including content) that does much of the work for them.