Meta has launched Muse — a personal AI assistant that not only answers questions but can also carry out real-world tasks on the user’s behalf. The service can open websites, fill in forms, manage email, plan trips and make purchases. Before carrying out important actions, such as making a payment or sending an email, Muse must ask the account holder for confirmation.
Key points at a glance:
- Meta has launched Muse, a personal AI assistant.
- He can buy goods and book holidays.
- Muse works with email, calendars and other services.
- Confirmation is required before making a payment or sending a letter.
- At present, the service is only available in the US.
What Meta Muse can do
Unlike a standard chatbot, Muse created as AI agent, capable of carrying out multi-step tasks independently.
A user could, for example, ask it to plan a trip. Muse can open a browser, find suitable options, fill in forms and prepare booking. Similarly, the agent can help with shopping, email, the calendar and other connected services.
Meta also gives more complex examples: Muse can help you sell a car, try to reduce a utility bill, or draw up a long-term plan to achieve a specific goal.
Moreover, the agent is capable of continue working after the app has closed and contact the user when they need to confirm something or when new data becomes available.
Muse can be used via WhatsApp
Communication with the agent takes the form of a standard email exchange. You can use Muse via a separate app or directly within WhatsApp.
The model is responsible for the service’s operation Muse Spark, which Meta describes as its most powerful model for performing agent-based tasks.
Muse can also remember information about the user. For example, if someone saves a recipe video on Instagram, the agent can turn it into a shopping list, suggest a menu and take into account any dietary restrictions of guests that the user has mentioned previously.
You can pay for your purchases via Link from Stripe. For transactions, the system generates a one-off card, so the merchant does not receive the user’s actual bank card details. In future, Meta also plans to support Shop Pay and 1Password.
Meta promises control over personal data
The very issue of privacy has become one of the key concerns surrounding the launch of Muse, as the assistant may need access to emails, calendars, purchases, payment services and other personal data in order to function properly.
Meta states that each Muse operates in its own isolated Muse Secure VM — a cloud-based virtual machine. A dedicated Sentinel security agent checks Muse’s actions before they access the internet.
According to the company, Muse cannot see the user’s passwords or payment details. Before carrying out actions such as sending an email or making a purchase, the agent must obtain authorisation. The user can also view a log of actions taken and disable access to a particular service at any time.
However, independent observers have already drawn attention to the sheer volume of information an agent can access once accounts are linked. During testing, The Verge’s Muse was able to use data from Gmail, Amazon, Facebook and Instagram, and even determine a user’s location based on their Amazon delivery address.
Reuters also reported that, during internal testing, Meta had identified security and stability issues with the agent, which is why the launch of the service had previously been postponed so that security measures could be refined.
For the time being, Muse is only available in the US
Muse is gradually being rolled out to users iOS and Android in the US, and is also available via the web version. Meta promises that the service’s basic features will be sufficient for most users free of charge.
According to Reuters, the company also offers paid tiers with enhanced features for $20 and $100 per month.
Interest in the new release is already high. According to Sensor Tower, Muse was downloaded more than 83,000 times on iPhones in the US alone, after which the app rose to second place in the US App Store.
Looking ahead, Meta plans to integrate Muse with its smart glasses. The company describes the agent as one of the first steps towards the concept «personal superintelligence», which Mark Zuckerberg considers to be the next major stage in the development of AI.
