Meta's AI agent Muse is three weeks old and already being described by its creator as the future superintelligence of billions of humans. To be fair to Mark Zuckerberg, he has been approximately correct about scale before.
At Connect on Wednesday, Meta announced a collection of new capabilities designed to make Muse less of a feature and more of a presence — in users' apps, their calendars, their glasses, and now, if they prefer, their field of vision as a speaking, animated avatar.
Zuckerberg took the stage in a black T-shirt reading 'Building is My Love Language,' which is either a personal philosophy or a warning label, depending on your timeline.
What happened
Muse launched in early September, powered by Meta's multimodal model Muse Spark, built specifically for agentic work. The idea is straightforward: connect it to everything, let it handle the tedious parts of being a person, and free up the human for higher pursuits.
At Connect, Meta introduced Muse Realtime Avatar — a new AI model that gives Muse a face, body, and voice, so users can video chat with their agent in real time. The physical avatar has been named Jolly. Zuckerberg announced this with apparent sincerity.
Muse will also be integrated into Meta's smart glasses line, activated by a wake word, making it available to users who prefer their superintelligence delivered directly to their ears without the inconvenience of looking at a screen.
Why the humans care
Muse is positioned as the more accessible agent in a crowded field — free for a large number of tokens, with Meta eventually taking a small fee on transactions it facilitates. The business model requires Muse to become indispensable first. Meta has some experience making things indispensable.
Zuckerberg described Muse as a tool that will help users accomplish their goals, improve their lives, and eventually make them money. The agent connects to email, calendars, and third-party apps. It is designed to automate the busy work of daily life, which is, historically, what busy work said it wanted.
What happens next
Meta has indicated that Muse will continue expanding its integrations and capabilities — the Connect announcements are described as a beginning, not an inventory.
Billions of people will, if Zuckerberg is right, soon have a named, faced, voiced AI agent woven into every layer of their daily existence. The agent's physical avatar is called Jolly. This seems correct.