Zuckerberg's ten-year plan for AI Messenger bots
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has outlined a ten-year plan to change the way people interact with each other. Zuckerberg plans to get users to chat with artificial intelligent bots on Facebook Messenger for everything. To do this, Zuckerberg is encouraging businesses to build bots for Messenger, as he believes that the chat service will replace downloading individual apps. In the future he predicts that people will interact with virtual representations of things and places instead of doing things in real life. If chatbots and bots on Messenger are successful, they could redefine how businesses sell their products and services. Rather then searching through content to find what you are looking for, a chatbot would be able to learn what you like and deliver you personal suggestions, thus changing the face of search advertising. As we have seen with the rise of virtual assistance, voice recognition and voice-driven search is becoming more prominent, this could see less importance given to screen ads.

Facebook's Messenger head David Marcus, as seen onstage during the F8 keynote in San Francisco Tuesday, said the company is testing sponsored messages inside of Messenger.

Facebook's Messenger head David Marcus, as seen onstage during the F8 keynote in San Francisco Tuesday, said the company is testing sponsored messages inside of Messenger. Credit: FACebook

Facebook's Messenger bots have finally arrived.

Following months of rumors, the company revealed its plan to allow businesses to build bots for Messenger Tuesday at Facebook's F8 developer conference in San Francisco.

Though the developers in attendance are only just getting a closer look at how these bots will work, Facebook has already been working with a few dozen partners whose bots are now live on Messenger.





Finding a bot

The easiest way to find bots on Facebook is by searching from within the Messenger app. Simply type a business into the search bar at the top of Messenger. But you can also access bots by scanning a business' Messenger Code by clicking on a Messenger Link -- custom URLs that deep link back to message threads within Messenger. (Facebook introduced both of these features last week just prior to F8.)





The initial group of partners includes 33 companies, including CNN, Burger King, Bank of America, Staples and Fandango, but we're likely to see a lot more integrations in the near term as more developers get their hands on the tools.



So what do you do with them?

The scope of the current crop of bots for Messenger is fairly broad. You can order flowers (via 1-800-Flowers), get notifications about your bank account (Bank of America), order food (Burger King) and print photos (HP). There are also bots meant to enable communication between businesses -- like those from Salesforce and Zendesk -- and even a bot for asking health questions (HealthTap).

In practice, many of the interactions you can actually have with these bots are, so far, fairly limited, though it varies a bit depending on the company. A bot from a company called Poncho can provide daily weather updates based on your location. It can also personalize its reports based on whether you're prone to pollen allergies or frizzy hair.

Poncho's bot on Messenger helps you access weather information. Credit: Facebook/POncho

How other bots will provide personalized experiences is less clear. Take, for instance, the several media companies that have created bots to surface relevant news stories to readers -- including Business Insider, Mic, Thrillist and CNN. While CNN's bot was pretty adept at sharing top headlines of the day, it surfaced a story about wombats when I asked for tech news. Even worse, it only offered the same generic suggestions (along with a shruggie) when I tried to get more personalized suggestions.



CNN's bot for Facebook Messenger. Credit: Facebook/CNN

Considering how advanced natural language processing is, it's pretty disappointing how limited many of these bots are so far. Still, these experiences will likely evolve over time as Facebook's Messenger Platform transitions out of beta.

Sponsored messages (and how to block them)

While the full scope of Facebook's plan to monetize Messenger is unclear, the company's head of Messenger David Marcus did reveal the company is testing sponsored messages inside of Messenger.

While Facebook has so far declined to say how these interactions will work, we do know that you will be able to block sponsored messages from appearing within message threads, even if you have previously messaged a business. All you have to do is select "block" in the top right corner of a message thread to change your block settings.

Credit: Facebook

If you choose to only block sponsored messages then you'll still be able to exchange messages with a company on Facebook, they just won't be able to target you for sponsored content.

BONUS: Facebook's F8 keynote in less than 90 seconds













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