What to know about Meta's AI agent Muse

Meta has launched an artificial intelligence agent called Muse, designed to carry out tasks on behalf of users ranging from drafting and sending emails to completing online purchases. The company has positioned the tool as a practical assistant that can take over routine digital chores rather than simply answering questions.

According to reporting on the rollout, Muse has shown itself capable of reliably completing many of the tasks Meta promotes it for, provided users are willing to grant it the access it needs, including permission to handle personal data and, in some cases, payment information such as a credit card, in order to complete purchases on a user's behalf.

That trade-off has become a central point of discussion around the agent: to unlock Muse's more advanced capabilities, users must extend a significant degree of trust to Meta, a company that has faced repeated scrutiny over its handling of user data in the past. The arrangement raises the familiar question of how much convenience users are willing to exchange for control over their personal information.

Planned expansion

Since Muse's debut, Meta has outlined further plans for the assistant, signaling that the company intends to expand its capabilities and reach beyond the initial launch. Details of what additional features or integrations are planned have continued to emerge as the rollout progresses.

Muse arrives amid a broader push by major technology companies to build AI agents capable of executing multi-step tasks autonomously, rather than simply generating text or answering queries. Competitors have pursued similar agentic tools that can browse the web, fill out forms or make purchases on a user's behalf.

For now, Meta has not detailed comprehensive safeguards governing how Muse stores or uses the data it collects while completing tasks, leaving privacy-conscious users to weigh the assistant's convenience against the access it requires.