Less than two weeks after agreeing to an $18 billion multistate settlement, Meta unveiled Muse, a personal AI agent designed to carry out everyday tasks by connecting to users’ apps and services. Meta says the agent is powered by its Muse Spark model and can interact with email, calendars, payments, health and fitness apps, smart-home devices, shopping, music and events.
How Muse works
Meta describes Muse as able to send emails, book travel, lower bills, fill out forms, create plans, turn recipe reels into grocery lists, send party invitations and make purchases. Checkout is handled through Link by Stripe, which Meta says provides purchase protections; Shopify’s Shop Pay and 1Password integrations are planned. Users choose which apps to connect, one at a time, and Muse can link to services with public APIs using credentials or access sites via a browser when no API exists.
Privacy and security claims
Meta states Muse runs inside a dedicated virtual environment called Muse Secure VM and that a separate Sentinel agent operates on the same VM but is isolated at the system level. According to the company, Muse will not see users’ passwords or payment methods and will not share conversations or data with Meta’s advertising systems. The report also notes Muse will continue to act after users leave the app and will learn from conversations to make unprompted suggestions.
The article points out privacy and trust questions remain. Meta’s recent regulatory and legal history includes a 2011 FTC settlement, a 2019 FTC settlement that resulted in a $5 billion penalty, a 2023 FTC charge alleging violation of a privacy order, an August multistate settlement for $18 billion, and a separate New Mexico order for $942 million. Past incidents such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the discovery of readable user passwords in 2019 are also cited.
Muse will launch in the U.S. on the web at muse.ai, on iOS and Android apps, and in WhatsApp, with plans to reach Meta’s AI glasses. The service is free to start but requires a payment card; two paid tiers—Power at $20/month and Maximum at $100/month—will be offered as usage increases.
Original source: TechCrunch AI