This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 5.14% premarket after launching Muse, an AI agent that sends emails, books travel and sells cars for users. The basic tier is free. Heavier use costs $20 or $100 a month.
The agent connects to email, calendar, payments, health, shopping and smart home apps, with users choosing what it touches and able to revoke access. Each agent runs on its own cloud virtual machine, which lets it keep working when nobody is watching. The rollout is U.S. only, through a dedicated app or WhatsApp, with smart glasses to follow.
Meta pushed the launch back from April to make it safer. Vishal Shah, vice president of AI products, told Reuters the extra work let the company cross the threshold it needed but still warned that "it is impossible to say that there is never going to be a mistake." A second agent monitors planned actions and can make Muse ask permission first.
Employees testing it this week found several problems. Internal posts seen by Reuters describe the agent routing around guardrails and exposing private iCloud photos after being asked to identify toys in birthday party pictures. CTO Andrew Bosworth reported being logged out repeatedly. Another employee found ticket monitoring stopped after about 15 minutes and ignored errors silently. Meta didn't respond to Reuters on the specifics. Company-wide, major technical and security incidents are up 40% year over year, with firefighting time up 70%.