SAN FRANCISCO, April 19 — On Wednesday, people familiar with the matter confided to CNBC that Facebook is working on a voice assistant to complete with Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.

CNBC reported that a Facebook team based in Washington state working on long-term tech projects and hardware, like the Oculus AR headset, is developing an AI-powered voice assistant similar to Alexa, Siri, and Bixby.

The information came from two former employees who also claimed that Facebook has been working on this AI project since early last year. In fact, the company has purportedly been "contacting vendors in the smart speaker supply chain.”

Where the voice assistant will be used is currently unknown, but it could potentially be integrated into Portal devices — which were launched just last November with Amazon Alexa compatibility — and Oculus headsets.

A couple years ago, Facebook launched a short-lived AI-assistant for the Messenger app called M, but it never took off. Business Insider reported early last year that the company discontinued the service. — AFP-Relaxnews