Facebook is now in the process of creating a personal digital assistant, which will be known as Moneypenny.
For those who may not be familiar with it, Moneypenny is the name of none other than James Bond's most trusted assistant/ally. According to Business Insider, Moneypenny remains a codename for now and there is a chance that the name of the personal digital assistant will be changed between now and whenever it would be launched.
Moneypenny would follow in the footsteps of other personal digital assistants such as Microsoft's Cortana, Apple's Siri and Google Now.
As of now, Facebook has not said anything about what Moneypenny will actually be able to do. According to the Telegraph UK, Moneypenny will be capable of helping users find and order certain products and services, though it is unclear what the scope of those capabilities would be and whether they can be used in concert with search engines such as Google. Other rumors suggest that Moneypenny would follow more closely in the footsteps of programs such as Magic or Operator, both of which are text-based operations.
If Moneypenny will be modeled after the latter two programs, then there exists the possibility that it would ultimately become a paid service. Facebook has made a point of touting their free services, meaning a pay-to-use program being an integral part of their system would be a stark departure from the company's current business model.
Facebook Messenger, which would likely be the one to make use of Moneypenny, is also rumored to be undergoing its own slate of changes. The messaging app is apparently being made more into a hybrid texting and shopping app as opposed to solely being used for the purpose of communication. The addition of Moneypenny, however, could drastically change the equation.
No further details about Moneypenny have been revealed at this point.
