Meta announced Muse, a personal AI agent for U.S. consumers, on September 9, 2026 — less than two weeks after the company agreed to an $18 billion multistate settlement over social media’s consumer harms. The launch represents Meta’s largest consumer AI effort to date and asks users to grant the company access to more personal data than its social media platforms ever required.
Muse works by connecting to a user’s existing apps and services, including email, calendars, payments, health and fitness apps, smart home devices, dining, shopping, music, and events. The agent can send emails, book travel, lower bills, fill out forms, create plans, convert recipe reels into grocery lists, send party invitations, and make purchases. Payments are processed through Link by Stripe, with Shopify’s Shop Pay and 1Password integrations coming soon. Users connect apps individually, one at a time, to keep the opt-in process transparent.
Muse is powered by Meta’s AI model, Muse Spark, and operates within a dedicated virtual machine called Muse Secure VM. Meta says a separate Sentinel agent runs on the same machine to provide additional oversight, and that Muse cannot see users’ passwords or payment details. Meta also states that Muse does not share conversations or data with its advertising systems, though the company notes these claims will require independent verification by security experts.
The agent is available via web, iOS, Android, and WhatsApp, with Meta AI glasses support coming later. It is free to start, though a payment card is required. Two paid tiers are offered: Power at $20 per month and Maximum at $100 per month, for higher usage volumes.
Whether consumers will adopt Muse may hinge on Meta’s troubled privacy history. The company settled with the FTC in 2011 and paid a then-record $5 billion penalty in 2019 over separate privacy violations. The Cambridge Analytica scandal and a 2019 password exposure incident remain part of its public record. To build confidence, Meta allows users to personalize Muse with a custom name, avatar, and communication settings — though the effectiveness of those measures in rebuilding trust remains to be seen.
Source: TechCrunch