Meta launches personal AI agent Muse as trust questions linger
Meta has unveiled a new personal AI agent, Muse, for users in the U.S. that connects to everyday apps and carries out tasks. The launch comes less than two weeks after a major settlement and amid consumer concerns about the company's data practices.
Less than two weeks after Meta agreed to an $18 billion multistate settlement over social media harms, the company introduced its biggest consumer AI bet yet. On Tuesday, Meta presented Muse, a personal AI agent for users in the U.S. that is designed to help with everyday tasks and projects. To use it, consumers will have to trust Meta with more personal information than ever before.
Muse connects to apps and services that are part of a user's regular workflow, such as email, calendars, payments, health and fitness, smart home, dining, shopping, music and events. The agent can 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 powered by Link by Stripe, which offers purchase protections. Shopify's Shop Pay and 1Password integrations are planned. Users decide which services to connect, choosing them one at a time.
The agent is powered by Meta's Muse Spark model. If a service has a public API, Muse can connect using credentials provided by the user; otherwise, it works through a browser. At launch, Muse is available on the web, through iOS and Android apps, and in WhatsApp chats. Meta says it will later arrive on its AI glasses. The basic version is free, but users must provide a payment card to start. Two paid tiers, Power and Maximum, cost $20 and $100 per month and offer more usage. An in-app meter shows how much free usage remains.
Meta says Muse runs in a dedicated, secure virtual machine with its own browser, called Muse Secure VM, and that a separate Sentinel agent is kept apart at the system level. The company says Muse cannot see passwords or payment methods and does not share conversations or data with its advertising systems. These claims would require deeper investigation by security researchers.
Meta's history could complicate adoption. The company has settled with regulators over privacy issues in 2011, 2019 and 2023; in 2019, Facebook paid a $5 billion penalty. In 2019, Meta also discovered user passwords stored in readable format, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal remains a reference point. Meta has faced lawsuits over child safety, including a settlement with 29 states in August, a $942 million order in a New Mexico case, and thousands of pending personal-injury and school-district claims. To ease concerns, users can customize Muse with a name, an avatar, and communication settings. Whether that personal connection and the agent's usefulness are enough for consumers to trust Meta remains to be seen.
