Launches

Meta's Muse agent will run your errands, but Amazon has shut it out

Meta's new US-only AI agent can send email, book travel and shop on your behalf; it topped the iPhone charts within ten days, and within two weeks of its launch Amazon had blocked it.

By Chris · News from Sep 8, 2026 · 4 min read · Checked Oct 2, 2026

Most people meet AI as a chatbot: you ask a question, it writes an answer. The next step the big tech companies are racing toward is AI that does things for you. In September, Meta launched a high-profile consumer example called Muse. It quickly ran into a very large obstacle: Amazon.

What is an AI agent, and what does Muse do?

An AI agent is an AI system that takes actions on your behalf, such as filling in forms, sending messages or making purchases, instead of only giving you text to read.

Meta launched Muse on September 8, 2026, in the US only. It runs on Meta's latest AI model, Muse Spark. According to Meta and TechCrunch, Muse can:

write and send email
book travel
lower bills and fill in forms
make purchases, with payment through Link by Stripe, and support for Shopify's Shop Pay and the password manager 1Password said to be coming soon
turn a recipe video into a grocery list, or send party invitations

It is available on the web at muse.ai, on iPhone and Android, and inside WhatsApp, with a Mac app added on September 17, 9to5Mac reported. There is a free tier, plus two paid plans called Power and Maximum. Muse is separate from Meta AI, the free assistant already built into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

It made a fast start. On September 18, ten days after launch, Muse took the top spot on the US App Store's free iPhone chart, pushing ChatGPT into second place, 9to5Mac reported.

The trust question

Handing an AI your inbox and your card details takes a lot of trust. TechCrunch built its launch coverage around exactly that question, recalling Meta's past settlements with the US Federal Trade Commission, including a $5 billion penalty in 2019.

Meta, for its part, says Muse runs in a dedicated virtual machine, which is a walled-off computer running in the cloud, and that Muse data is not shared with its advertising systems. That promise matters, because since December 16, 2025 Meta has used people's chats with its regular Meta AI assistant to personalize ads, with no way to opt out, PCWorld reported.

One setting worth knowing: Muse uses your requests to train Meta's AI unless you opt out. Meta says you can switch that off.

Amazon says no

On the night of Sunday September 20, Amazon began blocking Muse from shopping on its site. People who tried saw a pop-up saying that "continued access by an unauthorized AI agent" breaks Amazon's terms of use, GeekWire and TechCrunch reported.

Amazon gave its reasons. It told GeekWire that Meta had not asked before letting Muse shop there, that the agent does not identify itself as an AI agent, and that it appears to capture and store customers' login details. Meta says Muse cannot see people's passwords or payment methods, and that a separate checking agent must approve anything Muse sends to the internet. The clash raises a question every online shopper will soon meet: should a shop have to let someone else's AI walk in and buy things on your behalf?

Humans behind the "AI" calls

A second, awkward story followed. Muse can phone businesses for you, for example to book a restaurant table or a haircut. In mid-September, Meta tested a version on its own employees in which some of those calls were actually made by human workers in a call center, 404 Media reported on September 22. At least one tester was told only afterwards that the caller had been a person.

Meta said the test was internal. A Meta executive later called the way it was run "a miss" and said the feature had been rolled back, Gizmodo reported. Meta says it will launch a calling feature only when it is ready and properly disclosed. It is a useful reminder that AI products may still lean on humans behind the scenes.

Meta keeps building

Meta has not slowed down. On September 29 it launched Muse for Small Business, a version aimed at companies, CNBC reported.

What we don't know yet

Whether Amazon's block is still in place, and whether the two companies will reach a deal.
Whether Muse really stores login details, as Amazon says, or keeps them out of its own sight, as Meta says. Neither claim has been checked independently.
When Muse's calling feature will reach the public, and how Meta will tell people whether a human or an AI is on the line.

Sources

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