Meta is making another push to bring artificial intelligence to the masses with Muse, a personal assistant it says can put AI in the hands of virtually anyone. The product is the latest step in a multi-billion dollar strategy overhaul designed to revitalize the company’s ailing position in the AI race and help it catch up to rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

Muse is a “personal AI agent” designed to help out with everyday tasks and projects, like online shopping, sending emails, and planning a trip. Once given a goal, Meta says Muse can work on its own, opening a browser, filling out forms, and even negotiating on users’ behalf.

For lengthy tasks, Meta says Muse will continue working in the background after users close the app, returning to users if something changes or if it requires approval for something, such as making a purchase. ai, with AI glasses “coming soon.”

The assistant will be free for most users, though Meta said there will be paid subscriptions “for people who want to do more.” 1/4Remember to switch your agent off during screenings.

Image: MetaWhile Meta is pitching Muse as “the world’s first personal AI agent built for everyone,” the product is, in fact, very similar to the growing array of AI assistants, teammates, and coworkers on offer from the company’s competitors. Most tools are indeed aimed at businesses or technically-minded individuals — notably OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work, Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, Microsoft’s Copilot Tasks, SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot, and the viral open-source agent Moltbot — though Google does appear to be targeting a similar audience with its recently-announced Gemini Spark assistant.

Ease of use is where Meta hopes Muse will stand out from the crowd. “Anyone can use it out of the box, no technical experience required,” Meta claims, boasting that “there’s no learning curve.”

Communication is simple too, as easy as messaging the assistant through the Muse app or WhatsApp, one of Meta’s messaging platforms. It will also readily remember details users share, even if only mentioned once, Meta says, enabling it to make better and unprompted suggestions.

Meta is similarly keen to emphasize Muse’s privacy and security features. Securing trust will be key for making Muse actually useful as an AI assistant, as it will require a certain amount of personal information about each user to function effectively.

With this in mind, Meta says people can opt out of their interactions being used to train Meta’s AI models (it’s not known whether this is on or off by default) and can instruct Muse to “forget” specific things it has learned about them. Given their access to personal information and credentials like passwords and payment information, agents can naturally be a security and privacy nightmare.