Meta Platforms' new personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, has gone from launch to the top of the U.S. App Store in less than three weeks, drawing consumers, analysts and rival companies into a debate about how much authority people are willing to hand to software. Here are ten things to know about it.

First, Muse is an agent, not just a chatbot. Meta launched it on September 8 as a personal assistant that takes actions on a user's behalf rather than only answering questions. Meta described it as "a secure, private personal AI agent that proactively helps with people's goals and suggests ideas." In practice, that means tasks such as sending emails, booking travel, filling out online forms and shopping, once a user connects the accounts it needs.

Second, it runs in its own cloud computer. According to Meta's announcement, "Muse runs on Muse Secure VM, a dedicated, virtual machine (VM) that houses both the agent and a person's data." Independent guides describe the setup as a built-in browser the user can watch as the agent works, and note that it keeps running after the app is closed and asks for approval before sensitive actions.

Third, a new Meta model powers it. Muse runs on Muse Spark, a model family from Meta Superintelligence Labs first announced in April, which also underpins the Meta AI assistant. One........

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