Meta’s personal AI agent Muse has been around for just a few weeks, but the social networking giant is wasting no time building what could be its biggest bet yet in consumer AI.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company’s annual Connect event Wednesday with a keynote speech and made one thing clear. That means Meta is fully committed to Muse.
The Muse agent (Zuckerberg says the physical avatar is named Jolly) is designed to handle everyday tasks by connecting to users’ apps and services, such as email and calendar. With Connect, Zuckerberg introduced a number of new features and integrations to make Muse more useful and more deeply integrated into users’ daily lives. If the user chooses, Muse will appear everywhere, including in the Meta AI glasses.
Released in early September, Muse interacts between a user’s device and digital accounts. The agent is powered by Muse Spark, Meta’s multimodal AI model built for agent work. Meta touts itself as a more accessible agent than those offered by its competitors, an AI helper that lets users automate busy tasks in their lives from the get-go.
“The muse is at the heart of the vision of what we’re building,” Zuckerberg said as he began his keynote, wearing khakis and a black T-shirt with the words “Building is My love Language” emblazoned on the front. “Over the next few years, we expect Muse to grow into a personal superintelligence used by billions of people around the world to achieve their goals and improve their lives.”
Zuckerberg also believes Muse will benefit users and, of course, ultimately Meta.
“We are supporting this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens, with the hope that in the long run we will benefit from taking a small fee from transactions,” he said.
Here are the new features and features that caught our attention…
Muse gets its own digital avatar
One of the most exciting announcements Wednesday was that Muse users will now be able to create personalized digital avatars for specific agents and video chat with them in real time. The company says a new AI model, Muse Realtime Avatar, has been developed to power this specific feature.
The idea is that previously faceless meta AI software will be given a face, body, and voice, making it more individual. The feature certainly has hints of Metaverse-ness, and was demoed on stage at Connect. Users can interact live with this avatar, giving them tasks and asking questions.
Muse will also be integrated with Meta’s smart glasses product line, the company announced. This means users can communicate with agents by simply speaking into the glasses. The company added that the agent can be activated through a wake word and guide users through personalized workouts, track meals, make reservations, and help them purchase items they see.
Meta said Muse runs in the background and checks back in when it’s done.
It’s not clear exactly when this feature will be available, but Meta says it should be released “within the next few months.”
You’ll soon be able to run your Mac with Muse
Meta says it’s bringing the power of Muse computers to the Mac. The company has previously talked about Muse coming to Mac, and on Wednesday it took more time to reveal some new details. This means users can delegate tasks to agents, and like other popular AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic, Muse will be able to interact with any app on a user’s desktop.
“It can help run a small business or just get work done,” Alexander Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, said in a keynote speech Wednesday. “Even when you step away from your computer, you can still do all the work you prepared for.”
Muse gets its own email address
Since Muse always runs in the background, it naturally requires its own email address. Meta’s Wang announced that the feature is in development and will be available “soon” without giving a more precise timeline.
Users can also add Muse to email threads and forward emails from agents to handle on their behalf.
Meta has partnerships with companies like Stripe and Shopify, showing that the company sees Muse as an important tool for shopping.
Wang said Muse has agential access to the entire Shopify product catalog and can use Lync and now Shop Pay to buy almost anything on the Internet. He also mentioned that Meta is also adding support for payments with PayPal.
The company also announced a series of new partnerships with retailers including Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmart and Wayfair. Muse will be able to connect with these retail apps as well as Expedia and soon Instacart. Other connectors include GitHub, Granola, and Notion.
Wang said the company also wants to connect Muse with small and medium-sized businesses. Meta recently opened its platform to allow developers to build their own “connectors”. He said the company had received more than 1,500 applications in less than a week, adding, “I think this could be a generational opportunity to start building on new platforms as they take off. So far, the response has been tremendous.”
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