Zac Hall:
The new Meta AI desktop app is version 1.0 beta at launch and weighs just 16MB once installed.
Based on initial inspection, it runs natively on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 15 or later, using an AppKit and SwiftUI shell with WebKit for richer chat content. In other words, this is not an Electron app or a repackaged iPad release.
It includes Mac-specific hooks, making the desktop experience more robust than the Meta AI mobile app.
Karissa Bell:
The Mac app brings a few new capabilities compared with Meta AI’s existing website and mobile app. For example, it enables users to share part of their screen so the assistant can “see” what they’re working on and provide more specific answers.
Juli Clover:
The app is primarily meant for businesses and content creators, and it integrates with Facebook and Instagram. It incorporates analytics tools so it can answer questions about performance, and connects with Google Workspace for document access. Google Workspace access requires a professional Facebook or Instagram account.
John Gruber:
Passes the Settings window sniff test too — it actually has a Settings window.
[…]
The Mac app is not available in the App Store. You need to download it directly from Meta’s web page, using the “Download for Mac (Beta)” link. The ChatGPT and Claude Mac apps aren’t in the Mac App Store either — they do too many things outside the App Store’s mandatory sandbox (and probably use APIs require that special entitlements in the App Store too).
Sarah Perez:
Meta’s new AI assistant app, Muse, is now available on Mac.
On the Mac, Muse can interact with your files, messages, calendar, notes, and mail, all within their native applications.
Terrence O’Brien:
Jason Aten, a contributing editor at Inc Magazine, posted on Threads screenshots of an interaction he had with Muse in which the assistant asks him some questions about a conversation he was having in Messages.
The problem is that Aten says he didn’t give Muse access to his messages. When asked how it knew about the contents of his messages, Muse replied, “I saw the notification previews, not your message history. I haven’t been reading your texts.” Aten continued to push, asking how Muse was receiving message previews, it didn’t have a good answer.
M.G. Siegler:
The number one response I’ve gotten to my thoughts on Meta’s Muse personal assistant agent is some variation of “I will never trust Meta with my data.” But the number two response is arguably more interesting (and related): “Why didn’t Google build this?”
Pieter Arntz:
Mac security researcher Patrick Wardle says it’s trivial to turn Muse into “the ultimate backdoor.”
[…]
According to Ars Technica, Wardle found that a locally running application or terminal command could alter an undocumented Muse configuration setting that controls the server used for dictation transcription. By redirecting dictation traffic to an attacker-controlled server, an attacker could capture voice prompts and obtain the authentication token for the victim’s Muse account.
John Gruber:
Four days later and Muse still holds the #1 spot in the U.S. iOS App Store.
See also: Joanna Stern.
Alexandr Wang (Watts Martin, John Gruber):
Here’s the best part: we have no idea what people will want. The world until now has been shaped by the small number of fanatics who have somehow found a way to make their wants real. But we’ve never seen humanity with every single person’s agency fully switched on. Eight billion people who just need to write their dream down in order to get started making it happen.
So we built Muse to help people build the world they want.
Damien P. Williams:
So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta’s muse “AI” is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace???
Via Mike Masnick:
Almost all of Meta’s PR about Muse was about how careful they had been to set it up not to do things like this, how they delayed the launch by months to carefully design it so it could be trusted. And then…
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