Can China match up with Meta’s Muse in race to harness AI agents?

Meta Platforms’ breakout Muse personal AI agent is shining a spotlight on a new battleground in artificial intelligence – one in which China’s biggest internet companies are already jostling for position.

Launched on September 8, Muse surpassed 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks and topped free-app rankings on Apple and Google’s US app stores.

Its popularity has drawn fresh attention to the emerging market for what are known as agent harnesses.

Unlike chatbots, which merely respond to...