Facebook Created a Chatbot to Help Its Employees Answer Tough Questions

The social network said the tool, named Liam Bot, has been in beta since May, and it is available to any employee of the company who opts in.

Topics covered by Liam Bot include Facebook’s policies on hate speech, its efforts to fight misinformation, its position on political ads and how to navigate its help center if someone is having account issues.

Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac of The New York Times provided the following example of a Facebook employee being asked how the company handles hate speech.

Liam Bot would provide the following talking points: Facebook consults with experts; the company has hired more moderators to police content; artificial intelligence is being developed to detect hate speech; regulation is important; and citing statistics from a Facebook report on the topic is suggested.

A Facebook spokesperson said in an email, “Our employees regularly ask for information to use with friends and family on topics that have been in the news—especially around the holidays. We put this into a chatbot, which we began testing this spring.”

Facebook pointed out that prior to Liam Bot, it took similar steps to provide its employees with talking points around the holiday season, via methods such as internal groups on Workplace by Facebook, as well as email.