Meta’s Muse surpasses ChatGPT in early US iOS downloads

Meta’s newest AI product just did something that should make OpenAI uncomfortable. Muse, the company’s personal AI agent app, pulled in roughly 730,000 US iOS downloads in its first ten days, according to Sensor Tower estimates. For comparison, ChatGPT managed about 697,000 US downloads in its first eight days back in 2023. The app climbed to No. 1 on the US Apple App Store’s free iPhone chart by September 18, just ten days after its September 8 launch. What Muse actually does Muse isn’t another chatbot with a text box and a blinking cursor. Meta built it as what the company calls a “personal AI agent,” designed to perform multi-step tasks autonomously rather than just answering questions. Think booking travel, sending emails, managing calendars. Under the hood, Muse runs on a proprietary model called Muse Spark, which operates inside what Meta describes as a Muse Secure VM, essentially a sandboxed virtual environment meant to handle sensitive actions like accessing email or messaging platforms without exposing user data. The app integrates with email, calendars, and Meta’s own social platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram. It’s available on iOS, Android, the web, and through W...