I tried Meta’s new Muse AI agent — it’s incredibly useful, but handing it my digital life felt deeply uncomfortable

Meta’s new Muse AI platform would like the keys to your digital life to help run it for you.

Muse is a personal AI agent that Meta built to complete tasks on your behalf, including sending emails, filling out forms, shopping, and pretty much any other activity with an online component.

The AI is available in the U.S. as an app, or through WhatsApp or the Muse.ai portal .

It's a familiar idea in some respects.

Muse matches OpenAI and other AI developers in being able to open a browser inside its own cloud-based virtual computer and move between connected services.

It returns when it has finished, encounters a problem, or needs permission to do something sensitive.

Meta describes the experience as having an agent that understands your goals and advances them independently.

That can come off as sinister, even before it starts asking for permission to essentially be you online by having you sign in to all your online accounts.

Getting started is straightforward, although Muse is currently limited to U.S. adults.

You can install the Muse app from your phone's app store, open Meta's Muse website or access it through WhatsApp.

There is a free usage tier, while heavier users can pay $20 per month for Power or $100 for Maximum.

Muse shops for you (Image credit: Meta Muse) Once you open the app, the first thing the AI does is suggest you pick a nickname for it so you know when it is messaging you.

I went with one of the suggested choices, and "Scout" proceeded to ask me what I'd like to do with it, offering a handful of popular options.

I asked Scout to do some shopping for me first, as the AI made it seem like a much smoother process than with other AI tools.