Muse, Meta’s personal AI agent, is only a few weeks old and the social media giant is wasting no time developing what could be its The biggest bet on consumer AI. to date.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company’s annual Connect event in Menlo Park on Wednesday with a keynote speech that made one thing clear: Meta is betting on Muse.
The Muse agent (the physical avatar is called Jolly, according to Zuckerberg) is designed to handle everyday tasks by connecting to users’ apps and services, including email and calendars. At Connect, Zuckerberg introduced a number of new capabilities and integrations to make Muse more useful and more deeply integrated into users’ daily lives. Muse will be everywhere, if the user wants it, even in their Meta AI glasses.
Muse, which launched in early September, interacts across the user’s devices and digital accounts. The agent is driven by spark museMeta’s multimodal AI model built for agency work. Meta has touted it as a more accessible agent than those offered by competitors: an AI assistant that, right out of the box, allows users to automate the busy work of their lives.
“The centerpiece of our vision for what we’re building is Muse,” Zuckerberg said as he began a keynote speech wearing khaki pants and a black T-shirt with the words “Building is my love language” emblazoned across the front. “In the coming years, I hope Muse will become the personal superintelligence that billions of people around the world will use to achieve their goals and improve their lives.”
Zuckerberg also believes that Muse will make money for its users and, of course, eventually for Meta.
“We are supporting this by making Muse free for a large number of tokens, with the expectation that over time we will make a profit by charging a small fee for transactions,” he said.
These are the new features and capabilities that caught our attention…
Muse has its own digital avatar
One of the funniest announcements made Wednesday is that Muse users will soon have the ability to conjure up a different digital avatar for their particular agent and then video chat with them in real time. A new AI model, Muse Realtime Avatar, has been developed to power this particular feature, the company says.
The idea is that Meta’s previously faceless AI software will be given a face, a body and a voice, making them significantly more personable. There’s certainly a touch of Metaverse to this feature, which was demonstrated on the Connect stage. Users will be able to have live conversations with this avatar, giving it tasks and asking questions.
Muse will also integrate with Meta line of smart glassesthe company announced. This means that users will be able to communicate with their agent simply by speaking into their glasses. The agent is activated via a wake word, the company said, adding that it will be able to guide users through personalized training, log meals, book an appointment and help them purchase the products they see.
Meta said that Muse will work in the background and log back in when it’s ready.
It’s unclear exactly when this feature will be available, although Meta says it should launch sometime in “the next few months.”
Soon you’ll be able to let Muse run your Mac
Meta says it will bring Muse’s computing work to the Mac. The company had previously talked about Muse comes to Macand spent more time Wednesday providing some new details. This means that users will be able to delegate tasks to the agent and, like other popular AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic, Muse will be able to operate any application on a user’s desktop.
“It can help you run your small business or just do the work for you,” Meta’s AI director Alexandr Wang said during the keynote on Wednesday. “You can walk away from your computer and it will continue to work for you on all the jobs you have scheduled.”
Muse will get its own email address
Since Muse will always work in the background, you will naturally need your own email address. Meta’s Wang announced that he is developing that feature and will make it available “soon,” without providing a more precise timeline.
Users will also be able to add Muse to an email thread or forward emails from the agent to handle them on their behalf.
Meta has partnered with companies like Stripe and Shopify, showing that the company sees Muse as an important shopping tool.
Muse can access Shopify’s entire product catalog on an agent basis and use Lync and now Shop Pay to buy almost anything online, according to Wang, who noted that Meta has also added more support for PayPal payments.
The company also announced a number 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 noted that the company wants Muse to connect with small businesses as well. Meta recently opened its platform to allow developers to create their own “connectors.” The company received more than 1,500 applications in less than a week, he said, adding: “I think this could be a generational opportunity to start building a new platform as it takes off, and the response so far has been really great.”
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