Facebook is planning its own voice assistant as it looks to increase competition with rivals Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. According to a report from CNBC, Facebook has been working on this AI assistant since early 2018.
Facebook’s virtual assistant development team is being led by Ira Snyder, who also serves as the company’s director of augmented and reality. That team is also responsible for Facebook’s various hardware initiatives.
The project has officially been confirmed by a company spokesperson, who stated that Facebook is “working to develop voice and AI assistant technologies that may work across the company’s AR/VR products including Portal, Oculus and future products”.
Exactly how Facebook plans on integrating the assistant into its products is as yet unclear. Its Portal video chat speakers currently use Amazon’s Alexa assistant to power its voice-recognition.
Facebook faces stiff competition in the virtual assistant space. Amazon’s Alexa is a clear leader, while Apple is also ramping up the team around Siri. Facebook tried to enter the AI assistant industry in 2015 with its “M” virtual assistant for Messenger. That project was eventually killed due to a lack of use.
