Meta Launches Muse AI Agent App with $20-$100 Monthly Plans
Key Points
- Meta launched the Muse personal AI agent app on Tuesday powered by the Muse Spark foundation models.
- The app offers free and paid tiers at $20 or $100 monthly depending on usage.
- Meta recently agreed to pay $17 billion in a settlement with state attorneys general over misrepresenting harms on Facebook and Instagram.
Security Safeguards and Data Use Policies
Meta executives provided details about how the app protects user information. The app runs within "its own isolated environment" inside Meta's computing infrastructure and "never sees your actual passwords or payment details and asks before doing anything sensitive," Wang told CNBC. Users must opt out of letting Meta use their interactions with Muse to train company AI models. David Singleton, Meta vice president of engineering, said the company will scrub "critical personally identifying information" before using agent conversations to improve AI models if users do not opt out.
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The personal agent will be available through the main Muse app and via WhatsApp, though the WhatsApp version will not include features like the news feed or ideas tool that recommends AI agent tricks. Users of the main app can access a feed showing updates from connected Facebook and Instagram accounts or web articles and stories aggregated and summarized by the AI.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has positioned personal agents as central to the company's future revenue strategy. In the company's July earnings call, Zuckerberg stated that "new personal agents will be the foundation for our next wave of products and revenue lines in the months and years ahead." The company is exploring potential monetization through commerce, with Wang noting that "the commerce business model is potentially really interesting for this product because of how much it enables people to actually find the things that they are excited about and ultimately fulfill a lot of those purchases."
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Meta faces growing pressure from Wall Street to show returns on its AI investments as the company attempts to diversify revenue streams beyond digital advertising. The Muse launch follows other recent initiatives including the Muse Code AI agent for developers and various subscription plans rolled out to generate new business lines. The personal agent rollout also arrives as concerns mount about potential cybersecurity risks posed by AI agents and their foundation models, and as backlash grows against AI data centers and the companies building them.
Why this matters: Meta's Muse launch represents a direct bet that consumer AI agents will become a major revenue source, but the timing against the company's $17 billion privacy settlement and ongoing litigation demonstrates how Meta is pushing forward on AI expansion despite facing public and legal accountability for platform harms. For consumers, the privacy policies mean personal agent interactions will train Meta's models by default unless explicitly disabled.
Related Guide: Read our complete guide →
What This Means
Meta's Muse agent positions the company to compete directly with OpenAI and Google in consumer AI assistants, but uptake will depend on users' willingness to trust Meta with sensitive tasks given recent privacy settlements. Success hinges on whether the $20-$100 monthly pricing captures users seeking premium agentic capabilities, and whether commerce integration becomes viable revenue.
Sources: CNBC and other international news outlets.
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