Meta’s Muse surges in popularity as security and platform disputes emerge

Meta’s new Muse AI assistant has climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store while drawing scrutiny over security, privacy and its ability to act on users’ behalf.

The agent can perform tasks including booking meetings and canceling flights, Business Insider reported, and completing authorized purchases, according to TechSpot. Meta also announced a forthcoming handheld “Muse Charm” that displays the assistant as a customizable mascot. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects Muse to become a “personal superintelligence” used by billions of people.

Business Insider reported that Muse was tested for months by tens of thousands of Meta employees under a team led by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. The outlet said the assistant had struggled with language coherence shortly before release but improved through extensive task training.

Meta has since patched a vulnerability in Muse’s macOS app discovered by security researcher Patrick Wardle. The flaw could let malicious software already running under a user’s account redirect cloud-based transcription processing and use Muse’s privileges to take actions such as capturing images or writing files. Meta said it issued a hotfix and characterized the practical risk as low because exploitation required local access rather than a remote attack.

Amazon has separately blocked Muse from shopping on its platform, saying the agent did not properly identify itself and posed security and privacy risks. Meta has said Muse cannot directly view users’ passwords or payment methods because credentials are kept in secure storage. Amazon is actively working to block other third-party agents, such as those from Google and OpenAI, according to TechSpot.

Muse’s tools also include identifying and canceling recurring subscriptions, potentially reducing charges sustained by consumer inattention or difficult cancellation processes.