Meta's Muse draws 500,000 users after September 8 launch

Meta's Muse launch comes at a moment when AI agents are moving from demos into daily consumer tools. The body notes Muse is meant to handle routine work, such as researching and booking trips, finding deals, tracking expenses, or sorting out scheduling conflicts — the kind of tasks that require users to hand over personal data and accounts. The article also describes Meta acknowledging that Muse borrows heavily from OpenClaw, with file names and contents that are nearly identical, and product head Nat Friedman calling OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger a genius. The open-source origin of those design choices may matter to developers and to users weighing how much to trust the product with sensitive information. Early traction with more than 500,000 users and more than 31,000 ratings on the App Store is a strong signal, but the body itself asks whether that interest will turn into lasting use. OpenAI has discussed building its own personal AI assistant in response to Muse, suggesting the contest over personal AI agents is likely to intensify. The real test appears to be whether users will give AI agents access to their personal data, accounts, and sensitive information.