Meta says its Muse AI agent can do things for you. I put it to the test

By Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

(CNN) — It’s been a busy afternoon for Pip, the AI agent I’ve been using in Meta’s Muse app.

The agent, which Meta launched on September 8, booked a Friday date night and made a packing schedule for my upcoming move. It also emailed a friend about a trip next month and made a planning document with places we want to visit.

A Pixar-like avatar typed away on a laptop at the top of the screen to let me know my AI helper, whose name I chose, was hard at work.

Chatbots like ChatGPT have changed the way people find information and get answers to questions. Now, tech giants are attempting to develop AI assistants that can handle complex tasks, with the goal being that a user can give a broad command like “order my groceries for the week” and go about their day.

Muse is currently the most popular free app in the iPhone’s App Store and has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times since its launch, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. It is Meta’s latest and most promising attempt to rival popular chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to share more about his vision for Muse and the company’s AI plans during its Connect conference on Wednesday.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s the question of whether people will trust Meta with even more personal details: Muse’s rise in the App Stores comes after the company’s smart glasses stirred controversy and privacy concerns.

“While feedback (around Muse) has been positive, privacy and trust remain key considerations for broader adoption,” Bank of America analysts wrote in a research note Tuesday.

How Muse was helpful

Muse has more guidance for users compared to ChatGPT or Gemini, which can feel like a blank canvas.

The Muse app has five tabs: the main chat for communicating with the agent, a customizable feed of your interests and priorities, an Ideas tab with prompt examples, a list of goals to track based on previous conversations, and a section for files and media.

For my upcoming move to a new apartment, I told Muse what I still needed to pack, how much time I had before moving and that I wanted to pack in short spurts.

The AI agent made a list of what to pack each day this week, along with how much time I should spend on packing each day. It also gave general tips like setting aside a specific bag for the first night in my new apartment with all my essentials.

Like other AI agents, it’s good at planning-oriented tasks that usually require some combination of Googling, communicating with friends or family and booking reservations.

After connecting my Google apps to Muse, I instructed the agent to email a friend about what she had in mind for our trip to Cape May, New Jersey, next month. When she responded, I had Muse package her restaurant recommendations into a polished Google Doc, along with similar alternative options.

One thing that impressed me was Muse’s ability to understand and communicate roadblocks in tasks. When I had trouble purchasing a bottle of shampoo, it scanned the website to find out why. (It turns out the store it was trying to buy from was a beauty supply store that requires a professional license number).

Muse uses a virtual computer in the cloud for tasks like these, meaning it’s actually browsing the web to accomplish its assigned job. You can see it navigating websites and jump in at any time.

Still, other AI agents like ChatGPT and Gemini can handle similar tasks and sometimes provided more detailed responses.

Things that were easier to do on my own

Muse also served as a reminder that AI isn’t ready to handle everything. When I asked for a list of places to go for date night, it pulled up two options in my neighborhood that had been closed for years.

In one instance, Muse seemed to exaggerate its capabilities.

In its list of prompt ideas, Muse said it could haggle on Facebook Marketplace: “When the right one lands I message the seller, talk the price down against comparable listings, and lock in a time and place,” the app’s Ideas tab said.

But when I tried this, Muse said it couldn’t message sellers directly. It would instead vet the listings and draft a message for me to send to negotiate a lower price.

A Meta spokesperson said the description in the prompt ideas list is accurate and that Muse can negotiate with sellers under parameters set by the user.

Shopping is also often easier to do manually, largely because of restrictions that prevent bots from crawling websites. Amazon prevents Muse from browsing its online store, although Meta’s agent can still retrieve product links through search engines.

While Muse was able to browse Target’s website, I still had to enter personal details manually because the retailer blocked autonomous clicks at checkout. (Muse uses Stripe’s Link digital wallet service for purchases, which it says generates a one-time use card to prevent your credit card number from being shared.)

Do people want AI agents?

Meta and its peers are betting their future on AI agents at a time when consumers are increasingly skeptical of the technology.

Roughly two-thirds of American adults say AI is advancing too quickly, and more Americans predict AI will have a negative impact on society rather than positive, according to a Pew Research Center report from June.

Then there’s the privacy question and whether consumers will trust Meta to manage payment information and access apps on their behalf, especially after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And it’s not just Meta; 41% of Americans said they have very little or no confidence in large technology companies in a Gallup poll published in July.

“AI agents are often framed as helpful personal assistants, but to live up to their potential they typically need an enormous amount of private data to function,” Miranda Bogen, director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s AI Governance Lab, told CNN in an email. The fact that agents are designed to take action based on this information means the bar is even higher for safeguards, she added.

Meta said it built Muse to be “safe, secure” and “private” and that it runs on a dedicated cloud-based computer that can’t be accessed by other agents. It also said Muse cannot see a user’s passwords or payment methods.

AI companies claim that AI agents are well-suited for online shopping. But market research firm Gartner found that 64% of consumers said they think AI shopping agents will benefit corporations and brands more than consumers.

And despite Muse’s early App Store success, a survey from research firm Emarketer suggests ChatGPT and Gemini are the most widely used AI assistants in the United States by a long shot. When asked which AI tools they prefer or use the most, 33.7% of respondents said ChatGPT, while 18.2% said Gemini and 4.7% said Meta AI, the firm reported in July.

Still, Muse is Meta’s best chance yet at giving them serious competition. At least for now.

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