A new artificial intelligence agent from Meta is promising to organize your entire life for you.
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agent → promise → you
All it asks for in return are intimate details about your life, such as your credit card information and access to your email account.
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asks → ask → account
Earlier this month, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent.
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Meta → launch → Muse
Unlike traditional AI chatbots, Muse “doesn’t just answer questions, it actually does the work,” Meta said in its release.
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Meta → answer → release
Within weeks, this AI agent, billed as a kind of a personal butler, jumped to top spot on Apple’s App Store.
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agent → bill → Store
Muse is what some experts refer to as “agentic” AI tools, meaning they have agency to act on their own.
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they → refer → own
“Agentic systems are these intelligent tools that are able to have autonomy to take action (on your behalf).
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that → have → behalf
What they need from you is some authorization to act on your behalf,” said Ebrahim Bagheri, professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.
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Bagheri → need → Information
With an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Grok, you would have to enter a prompt to get a response.
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you → have → response
But an agentic AI tool can autonomously take action on your behalf.
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tool → take → behalf
“They do not actually wait for your explicit instruction.
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They → wait → instruction
They receive some guidance and authorization on your behalf to perform some activity.
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They → receive → activity
Then they plan accordingly on their own.
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they → plan → own
They set it out and they execute,” Bagheri said.
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Bagheri → set → it
The suite of actions that Meta is promising is sweeping.
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Meta → promise → that
You would start out by setting your life goals, then the AI takes on your tasks by itself.
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AI → start → itself
If you tell your AI you want to travel more this year, it will offer to book your travel and vacation for you.
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it → tell → you
Muse promises to build you a personal training routine on its own.
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Muse → promise → own
Muse can prepare your shopping list based on your likes and order you groceries if you’d like it to.
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it → prepare → groceries
If you’re having friends over for dinner, it can send out your invites, remember your friends’ dietary restrictions and order the food for you.
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it → have → you
It can take on tasks like selling your car on an online marketplace, filling out forms or negotiate on your behalf if you want to buy a coffee table on Facebook Marketplace.
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you → take → Marketplace
The release of Muse caused some panic on Wall Street, with some stocks tumbling amid fears that the AI agent will disrupt their business.
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agent → cause → business
Gym chain Planet Fitness saw its shares tumble last week amid fears that the AI would cancel unused gym memberships autonomously.
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AI → see → memberships
Travel companies like Expedia also saw shares decline, so did major telecom firms as many anticipate the AI negotiating lower prices for cell phone users.
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AI → see → users
How much data will you have to hand over?
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you → have → ?
The problem with this kind of AI is that if you want the AI to work well, you will have to hand over more of your data than you might be comfortable sharing, Bagheri said.
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Bagheri → want → data
“The more you want accomplish with agents, the more you have to give away your access to your data,” Bagheri said.
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Bagheri → want → data
To make bookings or cancel subscriptions, you would have to hand over your credit card details to these AI agents and also grant them access to your email account.
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you → make → account
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“If you want them to go through your email and see all flight that you were on that were delayed or if the airline owed you something, then you have to give access to your email, to your credit card statements, your phone so they can call the airline on your behalf,” Bagheri said.
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Bagheri → get → behalf
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada warns Canadians to “limit the personal information that you share about yourself” with AI tools.
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you → warn → tools
The privacy commissioner recommends not even using your real name or disclosing any personal details about other people while using AI tools, because “the information may be collected and stored” and may be used to either train the AI system or disclose your private information to others.
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information → recommend → others
For example, the privacy commissioner says you should “never share pictures or personal information of minors” with these agents.
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you → say → agents
Muse is already raising red flags with other tech firms.
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Muse → raise → firms
Last week, Amazon said it would block Muse from making purchases on its platform because the AI agent violates Amazon’s conditions of use.
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agent → say → use
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a post from Ray Wong, a senior editor at Gizmodo magazine, calling the technology “dangerous and creepy.”
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Musk → share → technology
Wong was reacting to the news that a Facebook Marketplace user’s home address was reportedly shared by Muse without permission.
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address → react → permission
“Deleted Muse after seeing this post on Threads about how it told some Facebook Marketplace sellers the guy’s address and they showed up at his door,” Wong said.
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Wong → delete → door
However, this came days after Musk announced that his own GrokAI will allow users to integrate their finances with the AI to manage their money.
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users → come → money
This will include linking your bank, card, and investment accounts with Grok.
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This → include → Grok
The question of consent becomes complicated when sharing your data with AI, Bagheri said.
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Bagheri → become → AI
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
