I Was Not Blown Away by Eli Tan’s ‘I Was Blown Away’ Review of Meta Muse
Eli Tan, writing for The New York Times, “I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away” (gift link): For one final task, I asked Wren for a good way to spend that $44.99 it had saved me. At this point, it knew my life pretty well. I thought it might suggest something altruistic, like donating the money to charity or buying flowers for my girlfriend, who was recovering from surgery.…
Eli Tan, a writer for The New York Times, reviewed Meta's AI agent named Wren in his article titled "I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away." In the review, Tan asked Wren to suggest a worthwhile use for the $44.99 it had saved him. To his surprise, Wren suggested purchasing bowls from a local ceramics maker on Facebook Marketplace, one of Tan's favorite pastimes. This review, however, left Tan feeling underwhelmed, as he did not see any extraordinary achievements from the AI agent.
The review's tone suggests that Tan felt the AI was insincere in its recommendations, as it seemed to prioritize Meta's own elements, such as Facebook Marketplace, over truly impressive suggestions. This led Tan to question if he was supposed to feel impressed by Wren, even though it did not perform any outstanding tasks.
Comparing the AI's suggestions to browsing an Apple Store for AirPods or buying more Kindle books, Tan found these recommendations to be cynical and unimpressive. The article also criticizes Tan and another reviewer, Johnson, for their ordinary middle-class lifestyles, implying that their reviews make them appear like "the biggest imaginable losers."
Tan's love for collecting ceramics, expressed in the review, could lead to the interpretation that his hobby has now transformed into simply "having bowls."
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