Meta’s Muse AI works and creeps me out

Meta's new AI app, Muse, is gaining traction in the United States, securing the No. 2 position on the App Store's Top Charts following its launch. Sensor Tower's data reveals that Muse has been downloaded over 83,000 times in the U.S. since its debut on Tuesday. However, this figure falls short when compared to other recent app launches from Meta, such as Threads and Meta AI.

Threads saw over 4.3 million U.S. downloads on its launch day, while Meta AI achieved 108,000 downloads during its debut. In contrast, ChatGPT, another notable consumer AI app, had topped half a million installs in the U.S. within just a week of its arrival. If that success rate were divided evenly, ChatGPT would have seen an average of 83.3K downloads daily at its debut, a number that took Muse twice as long to achieve.

Muse is currently available on iOS, with its Android counterpart ranking lower at No. 338 in Google Play's app marketplace. The app is also accessible via the web and through WhatsApp, but these platforms are not included in the download estimates. Despite the slower-than-expected launch, Muse's progress is noteworthy as it represents one of Meta's significant bets on agentic AI, a concept that envisions AI agents to perform tasks on people's behalf.

As Meta bets heavily on this emerging market, its success will likely be closely watched. The competition for consumer-facing agentic AI is fierce, with other tech giants such as Google and Anthropic also vying for a share of this market.