Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new handheld AI charm device during the company annual Connect event at its Silicon Valley headquarters. The keychain-sized Muse Charm features a screen showing the Muse avatar and a fingerprint sensor for activation. Meta stated the device will ship in December.
Zuckerberg called the Muse assistant the centerpiece of his artificial intelligence vision. He explained that if users are not wearing glasses, the charm provides the fastest way to talk to Muse and share surrounding environments. The assistant features real-time voice interactivity.
The Financial Times first revealed the development of Muse in May. Since its launch two weeks ago, the easy-to-use app became the most downloaded app on Apple and Android app stores in the United States. The application offers autonomous bots for everyday tasks like ordering groceries, booking travel, and organizing finances.
During Wednesday announcements, Zuckerberg added live conversation capabilities for Muse. He insisted the assistant features state-of-the-art privacy and security. Wall Street previously pressured the founder over heavy investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, causing Meta shares to fall over a quarter between last September and early August. Following the September 8 launch, Meta stock bounced back and added $300 billion to its market capitalization, trading slightly higher after hours on Wednesday.
The product release for Meta's 3 billion users follows a turbulent two years where Zuckerberg struggled to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic in frontier models. Zuckerberg stated he believes Muse will make users money. Meta will offer a free Muse tier with expectations of profiting through small transaction fees over time.
Meta also introduced new Ray-Ban glasses without cameras for audio-only interaction, alongside cheaper Meta glasses and new frame styles. The company announced new virtual reality glasses arriving next spring for $1,300 that are five times lighter than the Quest 3. The Muse assistant will soon arrive on Meta glasses, which will also support hyper-realistic digital avatars for video calls using hologram technology.
Meta hopes Muse will achieve high personalization by accessing social platform activity data. However, the company must convince consumers to connect personal data like email, financial apps, and calendars to bots running on Muse models. AI agents can still make errors or potentially go rogue.
Meta previously issued a fix for a vulnerability that could allow hackers to take control of another person's Muse agent. Additionally, Amazon blocked Meta agents from accessing its shopping platform to prevent third-party bots from using its systems.
The keychain-sized Muse Charm will ship in December.
