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Meta Goes All In on Muse AI Agent at Connect 2026 With Avatars, Camera-Free Glasses and a Keychain Device

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Meta used its annual Connect conference in Menlo Park to position Muse, its personal AI agent launched in early September, as the centerpiece of its consumer AI strategy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects Muse to grow into a personal superintelligence used by billions of people, adding that Meta is making it free for a large number of tokens and plans to profit over time by taking a small fee on transactions.

Powered by Muse Spark, Meta’s multimodal model built for agentic work, Muse connects to users’ apps and services to handle everyday tasks. A new Muse Realtime Avatar model will let users design a personal avatar for their agent and video chat with it live. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said Muse is coming to Mac, where it will operate any desktop app and keep working after users step away, and that the agent will soon get its own email address. Meta has partnered with Stripe, Shopify and PayPal for agentic shopping, alongside retailers including Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmartand Wayfair, and connectors such as Expedia, GitHub, Granola and Notion. Wang said more than 1,500 developers applied to build connectors in under a week.

Muse will also run on Meta’s smart glasses via a wake word, helping with workouts, meal logging, bookings and purchases. The company unveiled Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first camera-free AI glasses, designed with EssilorLuxottica in response to criticism over covert recording. Priced from $349, they weigh 43 grams, offer up to 12 hours of battery and open for preorder on October 13. Zuckerberg said the team realized it could build a whole new category around audio glasses. Meta also introduced the camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) and teased a private processing feature it says will keep user data from the company.

In a closing reveal, Zuckerberg introduced Muse Charm, a palm-sized keychain device with a small screen displaying the agent’s avatar. He said it packs the full real-time voice and avatar stack, activates with a fingerprint tap and will ship in time for the holidays in December, describing it as the fastest way to reach Muse without glasses.

The Tamagotchi-like form factor taps into Gen Z’s enthusiasm for bag charms and retro tech, though Meta’s history of FTC privacy settlements could shape how consumers weigh trusting it with a personal AI agent.

James Dargan
About the author
James Dargan

James Dargan is a writer and researcher at The AI Insider. His focus is on the AI startup ecosystem and he writes articles on the space that have a tone accessible to the average reader.

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