By Titik Puspa 
Meta, the social media behemoth, has thrown down a significant gauntlet in the artificial intelligence arena, with its new AI agent, Muse, taking center stage at the company’s annual Connect event. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a definitive declaration at the gathering: Meta intends to integrate AI features across its entire product ecosystem. This bold pronouncement arrived during a week already abuzz with significant AI model launches from industry titans OpenAI and Anthropic. However, Meta’s strategy, as discussed on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast by Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and Anthony Ha, appears to be charting a distinctly different course.
While many of the leading AI companies are heavily investing in developing tools for coding and enterprise solutions, Meta’s apparent pivot towards a consumer-centric approach, exemplified by the charming, Tamagotchi-esque Muse, has raised eyebrows. Meta insists that this device, despite its playful aesthetic, is strictly for adult users. Yet, as Korosec pointed out, this consumer focus might strategically play to Meta’s established strengths.
Sean O’Kane, who has personally tested Muse, found its ability to locate unclaimed funds for him to be an impressive initial feat. However, he characterized this capability as more of a "party trick" than a feature likely to drive sustained user engagement. This leads to a more profound question: can users genuinely trust Meta’s AI with their sensitive personal information? O’Kane articulated this concern with stark clarity: "Meta’s business is to sell you ads," he stated. "And yes, they’ll make the argument that the more they know about you, the more accurate and interesting the ads will be – wake me up when we get to that fever dream."
The discussion on the Equity podcast delved into the strategic implications of Meta’s AI direction, particularly in contrast to its competitors. Kirsten Korosec initiated the conversation by questioning how Muse, Meta’s new personal AI agent, fits into the broader AI landscape, which has seen a significant shift towards enterprise solutions from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. "How do you put Muse, which is this new personal AI agent that’s just been released by Meta and [is] clearly a bet on consumer – how does that fit into what you just described, at least with other frontier AI model companies seeing opportunity and business within enterprise? Because Meta Connect, which is their big annual event, just happened, and they are all-in on Muse, that is very clear," Korosec inquired.
Anthony Ha responded by acknowledging the disorienting nature of Meta’s announcement, given the prevailing industry trend. "That was definitely very head spinning for me, because it certainly feels like what we’ve been talking about has been this shift towards enterprise – not exclusively, but certainly that’s where the money, the attention is going," Ha explained. He elaborated on the financial pressures faced by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which are potentially eyeing IPOs in the near future. "Maybe some of that is because of the relative position of these different companies – OpenAI and Anthropic are in the lead in a lot of ways, but also, they’re planning to go public either this year, or next year in the case of OpenAI. And so there’s this feeling of, ‘I think we’ve got to actually make money now.’ Not to say that they’re not making money [already], but because the costs are so high and the valuations are so high, they have to make money on this scale that’s essentially unprecedented. And I think they’re seeing enterprise as the way to do that."
Ha then pondered Meta’s alternative strategy. "And I wonder if Meta, for a variety of reasons, sees a different opportunity. There’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Wait, did they not get the memo?’ But I think more charitably, you could say, ‘Well, if that’s where OpenAI and Anthropic are going, then maybe there is more of an opportunity for Meta to make the more consumer-friendly [version and] continue advancing AI on the consumer side.’" This suggests a potential strategic advantage for Meta by occupying a space that its competitors might be vacating due to their enterprise-focused monetization strategies.
Kirsten Korosec offered a pragmatic defense of Meta’s consumer-centric approach, highlighting the company’s deep-rooted presence in users’ daily lives. "I mean, we can complain about or criticize or critique Meta all day long, but they’re very good and have [an] established track record of embedding themselves in everyday people’s lives," Korosec stated. "I mean, there’s a reason why Facebook has so many users – Instagram, WhatsApp. And I’ve never really thought of them as an enterprise product anyway. So I think it’s smart for them to continue to push on the consumer piece." This perspective underscores Meta’s inherent advantage in reaching a massive user base, a crucial factor for any consumer-facing technology.
Shifting the focus to the user experience, Korosec turned to Sean O’Kane for his impressions of Muse, which had been available for a few weeks at the time of the discussion. "Sean, you’ve already tried Muse, which has already been out for a couple weeks. And I’m wondering if you see what your impression is, and if you see it being successful in the bid to become part of every part of your life," she prompted.
O’Kane shared his initial encounter with Muse, drawing parallels to earlier AI agent technologies. "I mean, not really. I understand why some people think that is going to be the case. I’m sure a lot of people understand this, but this is roughly Meta’s kind ground-up version of an on-your iPhone, or on your Android, app of OpenClaw, which we talked about a couple months ago, which Meta went out and basically bought and integrated those folks’ work," O’Kane explained. He reminisced about the initial excitement surrounding such agents: "It was the first big explosion of like, ‘Holy smokes, these agents can do all this stuff for me while I’m out and about, and I can just text with it and let it control my whole computer.’ There’s a lot of the same elements of that at play. And having it in your hand, on an app that works like a relatively good chatbot as the interface, it does seem pretty powerful."
O’Kane then recounted his experience with Muse’s money-finding feature. "One of the first things that I did with it was – because it makes a bunch of suggestions for you, as to things that it can do, and one of them was, ‘I’ll scan to see if you have any unclaimed funds,’ this thing that I think no one ever really thinks about and often is going to completely miss, because there’s just not a lot of unclaimed property funds out there in your name. Surprise, surprise, there were some for me," he said. He described the tangible outcome: "It helped me make some money on my first day, and that was pretty cool. I wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t been prompted by this thing to do it. And there’s a check on its way to me in the mail. Fantastic." However, he quickly tempered the enthusiasm with his assessment of its long-term utility: "[But] that ends pretty quickly, right? That was a one-time shot, but it’s not a thing that’s repeatable. That’s more like a party trick-type thing."
Kirsten Korosec playfully challenged O’Kane’s assessment, suggesting that such a feature could indeed drive popularity. "I mean, you just killed your own argument. I don’t see how that wouldn’t become wildly popular," she remarked.
O’Kane elaborated on the potential for more sustainable applications, acknowledging Meta’s emphasis on these. "The more sustainable version of that, and the thing that Meta’s talked up a lot over the last couple of days, is taking that idea and applying it to your real, true everyday financials, like giving it your information for your credit card, your Gmail account, all this other stuff, do things that we’ve seen other companies do, like Rocket Money or whatever, where it’ll go cancel subscriptions that you’re not using or identify double charges, things that frankly the credit card company should be doing already," he explained.
It was at this point that O’Kane circled back to his fundamental concern: trust. "And at that point you just run into that trust wall with Meta," he declared. He explained how his initial experience with Muse was less intrusive than he anticipated, which made him more receptive. "I think one of the reasons that I was willing to explore this and was curious to stick with it a little bit – even through to today – is that somewhat shockingly, when I downloaded it, I just assumed that it would like really instantly prompt me and like plug me right into Threads, Instagram, Facebook, which I don’t really use ever, and pull up that context immediately," he admitted. "But it didn’t. And it was working with me like I was a stranger at first, which made me more willing to use it, because I didn’t feel like Meta had everything on me already. But you can see, as you start to use it, it really tries to grab you and pull those things into the system, so that it can learn all this stuff about you."
O’Kane then drew a stark contrast with Apple’s approach to user data and privacy, especially in light of recent iOS updates. "I don’t know that I will ever trust Meta the same way. I think it’s an interesting timing for me, having just upgraded my iPhone and getting onto the new iOS with the new Siri that actually works and can do some controls on your phone in a way that is surprising and helpful, that it’s never been able to do," he shared. He continued, "I’ve been thinking about how much I’ve been using that over the last week and how much more how much more willing I would be to have the Siri version of Muse take that information, because I just trust Apple more with that really sensitive information and not only trust it with the information from a cybersecurity perspective, but from the fact that its business is not to sell me a bunch of crappy ads."
He reiterated his core criticism of Meta’s business model: "Meta’s business is to sell you ads. And yes, they’ll make the argument that the more they know about you, the more accurate and interesting the ads will be – wake me up when we get to that fever dream." O’Kane concluded his thoughts on Muse’s current utility by stating, "And beyond the one-time money lever that I got, which was great, I don’t feel like I’ve found anything else that’s really all that useful – other than the fact that it is, to Anthony’s point, really tailored at keeping it sort of consumer-y in your interactions with it, with which I do think helps it and is why people are talking about it so much." This sentiment suggests that while Meta’s AI may be engaging and user-friendly, its fundamental business model creates a persistent barrier to deep user trust, particularly when dealing with sensitive personal data. The company’s gamble on a consumer-first AI strategy, while potentially leveraging its existing user base, faces the significant hurdle of overcoming ingrained skepticism about its data practices.
