Meta's Muse AI Agent Races Past ChatGPT but Faces Amazon Blockade and Privacy Questions

Reviewed byNidhi Govil

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Meta's Muse AI personal agent recorded 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days, surpassing ChatGPT's early mobile launch numbers. The app topped the App Store charts and drove Meta's stock up 13% in a week. But Amazon has blocked Muse from its platform, and privacy advocates warn the AI agent prioritizes data collection over utility.

Meta's Muse Outpaces ChatGPT in Early Mobile Adoption

Meta's Muse AI personal agent has achieved 2.8 million total installs globally within its first 12 days on the market

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. When comparing U.S. and Canada iOS data specifically, Meta's Muse recorded 1.8 million downloads versus ChatGPT's 1.3 million during the same initial period

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. The AI assistant app climbed from No. 2 to No. 1 on the U.S. App Store, surpassing ChatGPT in overall rankings

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Source: New York Post

Source: New York Post

Daily active users for Meta's Muse also exceeded ChatGPT's early figures. Muse attracted 642,000 daily active users in the U.S. compared to ChatGPT's 231,000 at the same point after launch

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. Even when narrowing the comparison to iOS alone, Muse maintained higher engagement with 359,000 daily active users

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. Market intelligence provider Appfigures noted that the app posted an average daily download growth of 55% in the first 10 days

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Meta leveraged its cross-promotion strategy similar to Instagram's Threads launch, which now has 500+ million users

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. Over 95% of Muse's users are also Facebook users and 63% are Instagram users, demonstrating the power of Meta's integrated ecosystem

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AI Agent Capabilities Drive Consumer Interest

Muse positions itself as a consumer-facing AI agent designed to automate personal tasks like finding deals, booking reservations, and managing inboxes

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. The AI personal agent uses a virtual machine to browse the internet on behalf of users, running searches and clicking through web pages with notably improved accuracy compared to earlier agentic AI tools

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Source: 9to5Mac

Source: 9to5Mac

The app now extends beyond mobile to Mac, where it can interact with files, messages, calendar, notes and mail within their native applications

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. Users control what Muse accesses on an opt-in basis, and the app requests approval before performing sensitive actions

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Muse's Facebook Marketplace integration proved particularly effective during testing, quickly finding local couches for sale within specified parameters and offering to message sellers to arrange pick-ups

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. The AI agent follows up with users, nudging them to reconsider favorite items the next day

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Stock Market Reactions Reveal Sectoral Disruption Fears

Meta's stock surged nearly 13% in the week following Muse's launch and jumped more than 20% over two weeks

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. Truist Securities estimates Muse could generate at least $28.5 billion in additional annual revenue by fiscal 2030

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Investors worried that Meta's scale could transform Muse into a powerful comparison-shopping tool, enabling consumers to find lower-cost alternatives and weakening loyalty to incumbent providers

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. Financial stocks took the hardest hit, with JPMorgan and Wells Fargo losing more than 3% each, while Charles Schwab dropped nearly 5%

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. Insurers Marsh and Arthur J. Gallagher declined 2.4% and 4.6% respectively

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Booking companies including TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings lost over 6%, while Planet Fitness tanked 17% and the New York Times dropped 10%

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. Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, along with DoorDash, also declined

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Shopify's U.S.-listed shares jumped 11.4% after announcing it would use Muse to process checkouts

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. PayPal gained marginally after confirming users could discover products and complete purchases through the AI agent

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. Privately held Stripe and Ticketmaster also struck deals with Meta

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Source: Benzinga

Source: Benzinga

AI Compute Demand Benefits Chip Manufacturers

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained 7% since Muse's launch, heading for its biggest two-week run since mid-August

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. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices ranked among top gainers as market watchers anticipate increased AI compute demand from consumer-facing AI agents like Muse

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Amazon Blocks Muse Access to Platform

Amazon has blocked Muse from purchasing products on its e-commerce platform, claiming the AI agent would violate the company's terms of service

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. Amazon stated that "third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate"

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Amazon previously sued Perplexity in November, alleging the startup concealed its AI agents to scrape the retailer's website without approval

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. The retailer has also blocked agentic tools from OpenAI and Google

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. Matthew Hassett, CEO of Loftie and AI-focused ecommerce startup Deliberate, noted that Amazon's "whole model is fiercely guarding the customer relationship"

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Emarketer analyst Max Willens explained that as more consumers use AI agents like Muse, Amazon will become more protective of its role in the consumer journey, especially as shoppers increasingly start their journeys with AI assistants rather than Amazon directly

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Data Collection Concerns Overshadow Utility

Muse stores interaction details and user preferences in a "Memory" document described as "your curated long-term memory: durable facts, preferences, and commitments"

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. While users can request Muse to wipe memory data and manually edit the file, Meta doesn't currently offer a toggle to turn off the memory feature altogether

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The app constantly prompts users to connect more data sources. After one user mentioned wanting to save money for a vacation, Muse offered to "wire your savings tracker to your real balance" if they linked checking and savings account data

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. The app suggested scanning entire inboxes, photographing important documents, and snapping pics of meals for calorie estimation

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Source: PYMNTS

Source: PYMNTS

Rory Mir, director of open access at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that "folks don't recognize that when you talk to an AI, you are talking to the company hosting the AI. These chat windows -- that we're used to being connections between us and another person -- are really just us directly putting information into Meta servers about ourselves"

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Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez responded that "Muse is the first personal AI agent built for everyone, with built-in protections and user privacy controls that put people absolutely in charge of how they use it"

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Joseph Turow, professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and expert on digital media and privacy, predicted that "people are going to be very wary" but some will get "seduced into this" after seeing that using a personal AI agent can save them money by finding discounts

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Intensifying Competition in AI Chatbot Market

The desktop app arrives amid intensifying competition between consumer-facing AI agents, which many in the industry believe will define the future of computing

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. All major players now offer consumer-facing agentic AI, and other AI agents have gained traction by letting people use AI agents via text messages

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Poke, one of the first breakout hits in this space, exited to Cognition in July

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. Instinct, the newest AI assistant frequently discussed in tech circles, is raising more funds at a $10 billion valuation

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. Both Muse and Instinct rolled out voice calling features this week as they race to capture consumer market share

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Mark Zuckerberg noted on X when announcing the Mac app that "the team is shipping fast"

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. The rapid feature rollout comes ahead of Meta Connect, the company's annual developer conference

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