Facebook wants to make it easier to message businesses

Facebook is trying to make it easier for users to message businesses, as more people have turned to online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.

The social media giant said Wednesday that app developers will have the tools they need to build more messaging experiences on Facebook's photo service, Instagram , where people already go to shop and get customer support.

And Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp will support more types of messages, too, Facebook said, such as letting people know when a product is back in stock or when the COVID-19 vaccine is available in their area. More than 175 million people message a business on WhatsApp, according to Facebook. The messaging service will also include reply buttons and prewritten messages so users don't have to type out common responses.

Facebook is also testing a way for people to opt into messaging with businesses, through a new feature called Login Connect with Messenger, another of Facebook's messaging apps. The tool is still being tested but will be widely available in the coming months, the company said.

The announcements came during F8 Refresh, the company's mostly annual developers conference, taking place virtually for the first time because of the pandemic. Social networks such as Facebook have been pushing further into e-commerce as they explore more ways to entice people to stay connected on their platforms.

As the company doubles down on its e-commerce ambitions, people who use its products might be wary of sharing data about their shopping habits with the world's largest social network, due to its numerous privacy scandals.

This year, WhatsApp faced a backlash from users, with some threatening to delete the app over worries that WhatsApp would read their messages and listen to their phone calls. WhatsApp pushed back, noting that it had updated its privacy policy to include details about how data could be used and shared when a user messages a business on the app.

Microsoft is using AI to turn natural language into code

Microsoft was granted an exclusive licence to OpenAI's groundbreaking GPT-3 language model last year. The technology is one of the most sophisticated text program's in the industry and was powered by Microsoft's Azure AI. The deal saw Microsoft spend $1 billion to become OpenAI's exclusive cloud partner and that included the licence to GPT-3.

The company will now use the advanced technology to drive its push toward a more natural language for coding. Currently, the feature is limited to Microsoft's PowerFX toolset which is a simple coding language derived from Excel formulas. The big advancement here is that people who don't necessarily know coding can use natural language to query and find the right code in the system.

Speaking with The Verge, Microsoft's Charles Lamanna said, "There’s massive demand for digital solutions but not enough coders out there. There’s a million developer shortfall in the US alone, so instead of making the world learn how to code, why don’t we make development environments speak the language of a normal human?”

The programs made in the low-code environment run as web apps and are meant to help companies tackle basic tasks like analytics, data visualisation and workflow automation without the need to hire a dedicated programmer for the job.

The new feature will be previewed in June and will also leverage AI-based Programming by examples or PBE where users can create scripts based on input-output examples from other code.