Connect with us

News

Facebook created a chatbot to help employees answer tricky questions from friends and family

KnowTechie has one of these too, but it’s just Kevin saying stereotypical Boston things and scalping Celtics tickets.

Facebook login screen on phone
Image: KnowTechie

Talking to your family during the holidays is often filled with hidden pitfalls in conversation, but what if you work for Facebook? I mean, the company has been beset with privacy issues in recent times, and that’s without talking about all the nefarious ways the platform has been used to spread misinformation. How do you answer the inquisitive members of your family?

Enter “Liam Bot”, a chatbot that Facebook created that supplies rebuttals to those tricky questions.

Facebook built a chatbot filled with talking points for employee’s family and friends

Apparently, some Facebook employees recently asked their managers for advice on answering questions that their family or friends might come up with over the holiday period. Facebook’s answer was to create a chatbot loaded with the type of non-answers that CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave to Congress recently. After all, not everyone has their own legal team available to brief them on approved answers.

  • “Liam Bot” is loaded with talking points for those thorny “Why is Facebook…?” questions from family and friends
  • Those answers were written by Facebook’s public relations department
  • Facebook has been testing the chatbot since last spring
  • Previously, guidance was shared in the form of news releases posted to internal groups

It says a lot about the hit to the company’s reputation in recent times that the company felt the need to create this chatbot. I wonder if it’s for internal use only, or if we’ll find it included in Messenger one day.

What do you think? Surprised by the creation of this chatbot or does it seem pretty on-brand for Facebook at this point? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

Follow us on Flipboard, Google News, or Apple News

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in News