Its cute. Its cuddly. And it wants all your data.

Meta hopes its new AI agent will win people over by being cute.Muse, the tech giant’s cuddly, doll-like AI agent, shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts after it was featured this week at the company’s Meta Connect conference.The company is touting the tool, designed to help people with their everyday tasks, as an AI agent “built for everyone,” including those who lack experience with technology.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the default Muse avatar, which is cream-colored and has beady black eyes and an upward smile, is named “Jolly,” for its “jolly and completely customizable character and personality.”Muse is being launched as tech companies seek to make their AI-powered products more palatable to humans, often by giving them cute, almost petlike appearances, voices and personalities.

Experts have said design choices that humanize technology may become more common as robot-human interaction grows more prevalent in everyday spaces, as cuteness evokes “deep-seated biological responses” in people.“It was only about six months ago that having a personal agent running on your own computer was the sign of someone who is completely AI-pilled and thinking nonstop about agents,” Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, said Wednesday.“But for that small group of nerds ...

it looked like the beginning of personal superintelligence.And today with Muse, we’ve brought that magic to everyone.”Mark Zuckerberg's Muse AI Agent, Agrippa.MetaMuse agents can take on a variety of appearances, with users able to customize everything from their names to their attire.

Zuckerberg’s agent, which wears a toga and a wreath around its head, is named Agrippa, after the Roman general and statesman.During the event, Zuckerberg also teased what he calls the “Muse charm,” a small handheld device that can activate the agent on the go.He raised the keychain charm onstage at Meta Connect in Menlo Park, California, showing off what looks like a blend of ...