computer science

M (virtual assistant)

M (virtual assistant) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand M (virtual assistant) rather than just read about it. In short: M was a virtual assistant by Facebook, first announced in August 2015, that claimed to automatically complete tasks for users, such as purchase items, arrange gift deliveries, reserve restaurant tables, and arrange travels. It was intended to compete with services such as Siri and Cortana.

Key takeaways

M (virtual assistant) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect M (virtual assistant) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of M (virtual assistant) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

M was a virtual assistant by Facebook, first announced in August 2015, that claimed to automatically complete tasks for users, such as purchase items, arrange gift deliveries, reserve restaurant tables, and arrange travels. It was intended to compete with services such as Siri and Cortana. In practice, over 70% of requests were answered by human operators.

History By April 2017, M was available to a small test audience of 10,000 users. It worked inside the Facebook Messenger instant messaging services. If a user made a/some request for M, it used algorithms to determine what the user wanted. If M did not understand, a human took over the conversation, unbeknownst to the user. The project was run by Alex Lebrun, of chatbot startup Wit.ai, which was bought by Facebook. The project began in 2015. In April 2017, the MIT Technology Review called M "successful", although it noted that "M is so smart because it cheats." In April 2017, Facebook enabled "M Suggestions," based on the pure machine portion of M, for users in the United States. M Suggestions scanned chats for keywords and then suggested relevant actions. For example, a user writing "You owe me $20" to a friend might trigger M Suggestions to enable the user's friend to pay the user via Facebook's payment platform. In January 2018, Facebook announced that they would be discontinuing M. The company stated that what they learned from M would be applied to other artificial intelligence projects at Facebook. It came out after M's shutdown that no more than 30% of M's answers to requests had ever been served by the AI system; 70% or more were from the humans backing the system.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with M (virtual assistant)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what M (virtual assistant) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to M (virtual assistant) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about M (virtual assistant) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of M (virtual assistant)

In research: M (virtual assistant) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses M (virtual assistant) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: M (virtual assistant) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Discontinued software, Facebook Messenger, Facebook software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for M (virtual assistant) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study M (virtual assistant) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what M (virtual assistant) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain M (virtual assistant) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is M (virtual assistant) in simple terms?

Why does M (virtual assistant) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study M (virtual assistant)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on M (virtual assistant).