(Telecompaper) Facebook said it's started testing a new personal digital assistant called M. Part of Facebook Messenger, the text-based service M can complete tasks and find information for the user. It's powered by artificial intelligence that's trained and supervised by people, said David Marcus, Facebook's head of messaging products, in a post on the social network. He noted that unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can complete tasks on the user's behalf. It can purchase items, get gifts delivered and book restaurants, travel arrangements and appointments. The user tells M to buy a gift, then the service goes online to find the gift and arrange delivery and the payment can be confirmed over Messenger. A spokesman for Facebook told Re/code that M won't have access to personal profile information or the profiles of contacts on Facebook. If M needs information like the user's email address, it will ask.