Here’s something that people didn’t predict - Meta’s “Muse” agent seems pretty good. Friends in Meta, whose judgement I trust, are quite impressed by it and have shared some great examples like tax preparation, group travel planning, scoring World Cup tickets that they are quite happy with.

It’s gaining appreciation from other vectors too

I’m already on a tangent. I was trying to pay Meta a compliment after months of mockery. And it’s honestly a big one. Because I must say, Muse is pretty great.

Source: Meta’s Amusing Muse

This is great - I think. The more people can find value, the better the chance the frothiness has a chance to settle.

Meta’s cross promoting it heavily. The horse race for personal agents just became fascinating:

  • Gemini (Android and iOS) - Google data, but currently lagging in product metrics for polish, engagement, actually using all that data advantage to actually be useful
  • Siri AI (iOS) - All the data coursing through your phone, “private” but still nascent and lacking capabilities that frontier models have
  • Muse (Android and iOS) - a different set of personal data including the social graph and a seemingly quite capable model powering it.

Purely judging from the consumer angle, I think both Siri AI and Muse show stronger consumer design and product chops and hence seem more functional despite Gemini’s capabilities.

However, the pace of change is strong in the area - and it’s getting exciting that consumer products are finally the focus again. Let’s see what Google can (and better) do.