Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?
Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?
Meta 发布 Muse AI 智能体，消费者会买账吗？
Less than two weeks after Meta agreed to a massive $18 billion multistate settlement in a lawsuit over social media’s consumer harms, the company announced its biggest bet on consumer AI to date — and one that requires significantly more trust than social media ever did. 在 Meta 就社交媒体损害消费者利益的诉讼达成 180 亿美元的巨额多州和解协议不到两周后，该公司宣布了迄今为止在消费级 AI 领域最大的赌注——而这一举措所要求的信任度远超以往任何社交媒体产品。
On Tuesday, the company introduced Muse, its new personal AI agent that helps consumers with everyday tasks and projects for users in the U.S. To use Muse, consumers will have to trust Meta with more of their personal information than ever before. 周二，该公司推出了 Muse，这是一款全新的个人 AI 智能体，旨在帮助美国用户处理日常任务和项目。要使用 Muse，消费者必须比以往任何时候都更信任 Meta，并向其提供更多的个人信息。
The AI agent works by connecting to the user’s apps and services that are a part of everyday workflows, like email, calendars, payments, and other things the individual may regularly use, like apps for health and fitness, the smart home, dining, shopping, music and events, and more. The idea is a sizable bet on what comes after the ChatGPT era, where AI chatbots answered questions, served as sounding boards, or even became digital companions. Instead, Muse is focusing on AI that can actually do things for you. 该 AI 智能体通过连接用户日常工作流中的应用程序和服务来运作，例如电子邮件、日历、支付，以及个人经常使用的其他服务，如健康健身、智能家居、餐饮、购物、音乐、活动等应用。这一构想是对“后 ChatGPT 时代”的一次重大押注——在 ChatGPT 时代，AI 聊天机器人主要负责回答问题、充当倾听者，甚至成为数字伴侣；而 Muse 则专注于能够真正为你“代劳”的 AI。
The company says the agent can do things like sending emails, booking travel, lowering bills, filling out forms, creating plans, turning recipe reels into grocery lists, sending party invitations, and making purchases, leveraging Link by Stripe for checkout. The latter offers purchase protections, which could potentially ease consumers’ fears of letting an AI check out on their behalf. (Shopify’s Shop Pay and 1Password integrations are also coming soon.) 该公司表示，该智能体可以执行发送邮件、预订行程、降低账单费用、填写表格、制定计划、将食谱短视频转化为购物清单、发送派对邀请以及进行购物等任务，并利用 Link by Stripe 进行结算。后者提供购物保障，这可能会缓解消费者对让 AI 代为支付的担忧。（Shopify 的 Shop Pay 和 1Password 集成功能也即将推出。）
Muse’s users can decide which apps and services they want to connect, doing so one at a time, to make the opt-in nature of using Muse more transparent. The agent is powered by Meta’s AI model, Muse Spark, and ships with built-in connectors for several services, with plans to add more over time. If a service the user wants isn’t available but offers a public API, Muse can set up a connection using credentials the user provides. When no API is available, Muse can access the service via the browser instead. Muse 的用户可以逐一决定要连接哪些应用程序和服务，从而使 Muse 的“选择加入”机制更加透明。该智能体由 Meta 的 AI 模型 Muse Spark 驱动，并内置了多种服务的连接器，未来计划增加更多。如果用户想要的服务尚未内置但提供公共 API，Muse 可以使用用户提供的凭据建立连接。当没有 API 可用时，Muse 则可以通过浏览器访问该服务。
Muse will initially be available via the web at muse.ai, through apps on iOS and Android, and through chats in WhatsApp. It will soon also make its way to Meta’s AI glasses, the company says. It will be free to use, with subscription plans kicking in as usage increases, which is why Muse requires a payment card to get started. Two paid plans will be available at launch: Power at $20/month and Maximum at $100/month. Both of these subscriptions offer more Muse usage for handing off everyday tasks, though Meta believes most people will remain on the free tier. (The company says the app includes a usage meter that shows users what percentage of their usage they have left. It will also warn users when free usage runs out and present options to subscribe.) Muse 最初将通过网页端 muse.ai、iOS 和 Android 应用以及 WhatsApp 聊天提供。该公司表示，它很快也将登陆 Meta 的 AI 眼镜。Muse 将免费提供使用，随着使用量的增加，订阅计划将生效，这就是为什么 Muse 在开始使用时需要绑定支付卡。发布时将提供两种付费计划：每月 20 美元的 Power 计划和每月 100 美元的 Maximum 计划。这两种订阅都提供更多的使用额度来处理日常任务，尽管 Meta 认为大多数人仍会停留在免费层级。（该公司表示，应用内包含一个使用量仪表盘，显示用户剩余的使用百分比。当免费额度用尽时，它也会提醒用户并提供订阅选项。）
Like other AI agents, Muse will continue to work even after the user leaves the app. It will also improve over time by learning from the user’s conversations what’s important to them to make suggestions unprompted, Meta noted. 与其他 AI 智能体一样，即使在用户离开应用后，Muse 仍会继续工作。Meta 指出，它还会随着时间的推移，通过学习用户的对话内容来了解他们的需求，从而主动提供建议。
The concept is not unique to Meta. The agentic era is now coming into its own, as larger companies and smaller startups alike are experimenting with how AI agents will make the most sense for consumers and can become integrated into people’s daily lives. Some have tried AI web browsers or services, like Gemini Spark or Claude Cowork, that can kick off various tasks on consumers’ behalf. Others are integrating AI into the chat applications consumers use the most, like Apple’s iMessage platform, SMS, and WhatsApp. 这一概念并非 Meta 独有。随着大型企业和小型初创公司都在探索如何让 AI 智能体对消费者产生最大价值并融入人们的日常生活，“智能体时代”正在到来。一些公司尝试了 AI 网络浏览器或服务，如 Gemini Spark 或 Claude Cowork，它们可以代表消费者启动各种任务。另一些公司则将 AI 集成到消费者最常用的聊天应用中，如苹果的 iMessage 平台、短信和 WhatsApp。
Despite their usefulness, these powerful agents have forced consumers to wrestle with difficult questions about how much privacy they’re willing to give up. Many early testers of the AI assistant Instinct were shocked to see the app required a broad “perpetual and irrevocable” license to “access, use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, display, publish, distribute, and modify” any of the user’s materials, including for training its AI models. 尽管这些强大的智能体非常实用，但它们也迫使消费者不得不面对一个难题：他们愿意放弃多少隐私？AI 助手 Instinct 的许多早期测试者感到震惊，因为该应用要求获得广泛的“永久且不可撤销”的许可，以“访问、使用、托管、缓存、存储、复制、传输、展示、发布、分发和修改”用户的任何资料，包括用于训练其 AI 模型。
Under the hood, Meta claims that Muse runs in its own “dedicated, secure computer with its own browser,” Muse Secure VM, which offers various privacy, safety, and security protections over customers’ data. The company says a separate Sentinel agent runs on that same virtual machine, but is kept apart from Muse at the system level. 在底层技术方面，Meta 声称 Muse 运行在自己“专用的、安全的计算机及其自带浏览器”中，即 Muse Secure VM，它为客户数据提供了各种隐私、安全和防护措施。该公司表示，一个独立的 Sentinel 智能体运行在同一个虚拟机上，但在系统层面与 Muse 保持隔离。
This means Muse won’t have visibility into people’s passwords or payment methods. Meta also claims that Muse doesn’t share people’s conversations or data with Meta’s ads systems. (These claims are explained in more detail in a technical post, also released today, but will require deeper investigation by security experts.) 这意味着 Muse 无法查看用户的密码或支付方式。Meta 还声称，Muse 不会与 Meta 的广告系统共享用户的对话或数据。（这些声明在今天同时发布的一篇技术文章中有更详细的解释，但仍需安全专家进行深入调查。）
Could Meta’s history hurt Muse adoption? Despite Meta’s documentation of its security measures, it remains to be seen whether the company has enough consumer trust for its agent to be successful. As it stands, Meta has a history of proclaiming one thing and doing another. In 2011, for instance, the tech giant settled with the FTC over charges that it deceived consumers by making users’ private information public without their approval. In 2019, the FTC penalized Facebook in a then record-breaking $5 billion settlement over eight separate privacy-related violations. In 2023, the FTC charged Meta with violating a privacy order that was filed after the 2019 settlement. In terms of technical matters, Meta has also had some big missteps before, having discovered in 2019 a number of users’ passwords in readable formats, exposing people to potential hacks. The massive Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which saw Facebook data belonging to millions of consumers collected by a third-party without their consent, still lingers in some people’s minds, too. Meta 的过往历史会影响 Muse 的普及吗？尽管 Meta 记录了其安全措施，但该公司是否拥有足够的消费者信任来确保其智能体取得成功，仍有待观察。事实上，Meta 有着言行不一的记录。例如，2011 年，这家科技巨头与联邦贸易委员会（FTC）达成和解，原因是其在未经用户批准的情况下公开私人信息，欺骗了消费者。2019 年，FTC 对 Facebook 处以当时创纪录的 50 亿美元罚款，涉及八项独立的隐私违规行为。2023 年，FTC 指控 Meta 违反了 2019 年和解协议后提交的隐私令。在技术层面，Meta 之前也曾出现过重大失误，例如 2019 年发现大量用户密码以可读格式存储，导致用户面临潜在的黑客攻击风险。大规模的剑桥分析（Cambridge Analytica）数据丑闻——即数百万消费者的 Facebook 数据在未经同意的情况下被第三方收集——至今仍留在一些人的记忆中。