More or Less · Topics · Episode #166

Meta's Muse Launches — and Fails Its First Question: 'Do You Know Me?'

From #166 — iPhone Duo, Meta Muse & Why AI Finally Scared Dave Morin · September 11, 2026 · 5:25 min · Jessica Lessin, Dave Morin, Brit Morin

Clip from the full recording, 18:27–23:52 · download mp4

Dave and Brit both open Meta's new personal agent Muse and ask it the same obvious question first — what do you know about me — and both get nothing, despite Meta sitting on two decades of their Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp data.

Meta ships its long-awaited personal-agent play, Muse, positioned to compete with OpenClaw-style agents. Both Dave and Brit’s first move is asking it what it knows about them — and both get a blank. Dave pushes further, asking it to read his Instagram posts and describe him; Muse initially refuses (“I’m sorry, I can’t do that”), then relents and admits it can only read text descriptions of his photos, not the photos themselves.

Despite the rocky first impression, Dave gives Meta real credit for shipping a genuinely new product after a long gap, and singles out the interface: a well-animated “thinking” avatar and thoughtful onboarding (an “ideas and goals” sidebar) aimed at AI newcomers. Brit’s verdict is similar — good UI, weak content, “good start” — but she’s more struck by how crowded the space has gotten in two weeks alone (Muse, Instinct, Grokbot, and more), asking bluntly how many is too many, and where does this all net out.

Jess reframes the crowding as segmentation rather than pure competition — she thinks Muse, Instinct and the rest are targeting different audiences at this early phase rather than fighting head-on — while Brit counters that most of them are actually all chasing the same mass consumer market, name-checking lesser-known entrants like Hermes ($1.5B valuation) as evidence of how much capital has already piled into the category.

Key points

• Dave and Brit both ask Muse "what do you know about me" as their first test; both get nothing despite Meta's two decades of Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp data.
• Muse initially refuses to read and summarize Dave's own Instagram posts, then agrees but can only access text descriptions, not the images.
• Dave's genuine praise: strong avatar animation/interface design, and credit to Meta for shipping a new product after a long gap.
• Brit's take: good UI for AI newcomers (an "ideas and goals" onboarding sidebar), but weak actual output quality so far — "good start."
• The category is suddenly crowded: Muse, Instinct, Grokbot and others all launched or gained attention within about two weeks.
• Brit name-checks a lesser-known competitor, Hermes, reportedly valued around $1.5B — evidence of how much capital is chasing this category already.
• Jess's read: the agents are segmenting toward different audiences early on rather than fighting for the identical user, at least for now.

Where they landed

Quotes

“The first question I asked it was, what do you know about me? And it knew... it knew nothing.”— Dave

“I was expecting a fucking book. It got nothing. I was like, don't you literally know me for twenty years, Muse? Look at all my Facebook and Instagram data and WhatsApp.”— Brit

“How many is too many, guys? And where is this all gonna net out?”— Brit

Suggested tweets

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