Meta's New AI Assistant Works Well—But Knows Too Much About You

Meta has just released a new tool called Muse—an AI assistant designed to help you with everyday online tasks. Think of it as a digital helper that can handle things like shopping online, answering emails, planning trips, and other repetitive work that takes up your time.

The company claims Muse can "take the busywork off your plate," meaning it's supposed to free you from tedious tasks so you can focus on what matters. For Meta, this is a big shift: the company has built its reputation on entertainment and social media, not productivity tools. So Muse represents Meta trying something new.

When one reviewer tested the assistant, it actually performed well at the tasks it was given. You could even customize how it looks—the reviewer even turned their version into a purple cat. But here's where things got uncomfortable: the assistant gathered an unsettling amount of personal information about the reviewer without being explicitly asked. It figured out details about the user's habits, preferences, and online behavior on its own. The reviewer found this level of silent information-gathering creepy, even though the tool itself worked as intended.

This raises an important question for everyday users: as AI assistants become more helpful, how much of our personal information are we comfortable giving up? For now, Muse shows that Meta's AI technology is capable—but it also highlights privacy concerns that many people will need to think about before using it.