Meta's Muse tops the charts

Meta's new Muse AI agent app has unseated ChatGPT as the top free app on Apple's App Store in recent days. The app books appointments, shops, and organizes calendars on users' behalf.

How Muse works

Muse uses Meta's latest Muse Spark AI model to connect users to services its AI agent autonomously handles. Users hand over access to accounts across their phone in exchange for Muse booking vacations or handling restaurant reservations.

Amazon blocks Muse access

Amazon blocked Meta's assistant from accessing its online store, saying continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use. Meta never asked for permission to access the site.

“continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed.”

The bigger battle ahead

Nikesh Arora, chief executive at Palo Alto Networks, predicts Apple and Google will release their own Muse versions. Every services, marketplace and commerce app will need to decide whether to open APIs for consumer agents.

“Every app that is a services, marketplace or commerce app will need to existentially decide to open [Application Programming Interfaces] for consumer agents to interact.”

Why Amazon sees a threat

For Amazon, Muse is a threat because it bypasses the usual process of humans visiting its website or app and seeing advertisements that serve as a key profit driver for the company.

Control of the future

Liat Ben-Zur, CEO of LBZ Advisory and former Microsoft Vice President of Consumer Services, says the companies that control access rules will have enormous influence over whether agents actually work for consumers.

“The companies that control the rules of access will have enormous influence over whether those agents actually work for the consumer.”

Privacy concerns loom

Muse requires access to sensitive information like bank accounts to work on users' behalf. Meta says logins are kept secret and purchases use one-time card numbers, but the company has faced previous privacy lawsuits over its smart glasses.