Meta Muse: The AI Agent That Runs Your Errands

Meta Muse: The AI Agent That Runs Your Errands

Meta just launched Muse, a personal AI agent that does not just answer your questions, it actually does your work. Here is what it can handle, what it costs, and how to try it right now.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

September 12, 2026

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Your to-do list has two kinds of items. 

The ones that need your brain, and the ones that just need somebody to do them. 

Booking the flight, turning a recipe video into a grocery list, haggling with the cable company.

Here’s a Cool Tip: hand your errands to Meta’s Muse AI agent.

Meta has introduced Muse, its biggest consumer AI bet yet, aimed at that second kind of task. 

Powered by Meta's Muse Spark model, Muse takes plain-language requests and does the work: sending emails, filling out forms, even negotiating on your behalf. 

It keeps working in the background after you close the app and checks in when it needs your approval.

Feature Explanation

Muse is an agentic AI. A chatbot answers one question at a time. 

An agent takes real actions across apps and websites, works through multi-step jobs on its own, and keeps going in the background.

It runs inside Meta's Muse Secure VM, a private virtual machine with its own browser that books appointments, fills out forms, and handles customer service chats. 

A separate watchdog called Sentinel is walled off from Muse on the same machine, making sure Muse never acts without your approval.

You message Muse like a person in the Muse app, connecting your apps one at a time. 

Before anything consequential, a sent message, a purchase, shared data, Muse asks: allow once, always allow, or deny. 

An audit trail shows everything it did. 

It can turn a saved recipe reel into a grocery list or quietly work a bill negotiation, returning when it needs a yes. 

It is brand new, rolling out in the US for 18 and over, with Meta AI glasses support coming soon.

What's the Difference?

Meta AI (meta.ai) is Meta's conversational assistant, basically their ChatGPT. 

It answers questions, writes text, generates images, and chats with you. 

It lives inside Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and has its own standalone app and site. Free, widely available, been around a while.

Muse (muse.ai) is Meta's new personal AI agent, launched September 8, 2026. 

Instead of just answering, it takes real actions across your apps and websites: booking travel, sending emails, filling out forms, negotiating bills, making purchases. 

It runs in its own secure virtual machine with a browser, keeps working in the background after you close the app, and asks your approval before anything consequential like spending money. 

It's US-only, 18+, free with a usage limit, with $20 and $100 monthly plans for heavier use.

So, Meta AI is "a simple AI chat experience similar to ChatGPT," while Muse is "a personal AI agent that can take actions on a user's behalf across different apps and websites."

They're separate products, but related: Muse is powered by Meta's newer Muse Spark model and represents the step from chatbot to agent.

What You’ll Gain

• Get hours back by handing off travel booking and customer-service calls.
• Stop babysitting tasks. Muse works in the background, pinging you only for approvals.
• Stay in control with per-action approvals and a full audit trail.
• Keep data fenced off with a private virtual machine and one-time card numbers.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here's how to do it.

Web/Desktop

1. Go to muse.ai and create your account (18+, US only).
2. Skip the payment card for now. The free tier works without one; add a payment method only when you want a paid plan or agent-made purchases.
3. Connect apps one at a time, starting with email and calendar.
4. Personalize your agent: name it, pick an avatar, set its tone.
5. Type a task in plain language, such as "Find a cheaper Chicago flight next month and show options before booking."
6. Review every approval request before Muse sends or spends anything.

fig. 1 - Connect Apps in Meta Muse

Cool Examples:

• Reminder setup in plain English. Say "remind me to water the plants every Sunday morning" and it's done, recurring, no digging through app settings.
• Inbox triage. Connect your email and have Muse draft replies to routine messages, flag the ones that actually need you, and summarize long threads you missed.
• Recipe to grocery list. Send it a saved recipe video or reel and it builds the grocery list, then reminds you to shop on Saturday.
• Appointment wrangling. Give it something like "book a dentist appointment next week, mornings preferred" and it checks availability, books it, and adds it to your calendar.
• Bill negotiation. Ask it to review a cable or phone bill, then have it work the provider's support chat to get a lower rate. It pauses and asks before agreeing to anything.

iPhone / Android

1. Install the Muse app from the App Store or Google Play Store.
2. Sign in and complete the setup process.
3. Connect apps one at a time.
4. Start a chat and describe the task, or message Muse inside WhatsApp.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. It does things, not just chat: booking travel, negotiating bills, filling out forms.
2. Approvals keep you in charge: nothing sent or purchased without your say-so, with a full audit trail.
3. It works while you are away: long tasks continue after you close the app.
4. Serious security design: private virtual machine, separate Sentinel watchdog, one-time card numbers via Link by Stripe, and a credential store the agent cannot read.

Cons:

1. US only, 18 and over, with no timeline for other regions.
2. Payments need a linked card: purchases and paid plans require a payment method, though the free tier works without one.
3. Steep paid plans: $20/month Power, $100/month Maximum.
4. The trust question is real: Meta's privacy history will make many hesitate to share logins.

Feature Access

• Available to 18 and older in the United States, rolling out now. 
• Works on the web at muse.ai, iOS, Android, and WhatsApp, with Meta AI glasses support coming soon. 
• Free with a usage limit and in-app meter; Power ($20/month) and Maximum ($100/month) add usage. 

Score

Criterion  |  Score (0–10)  |  Justification

Value  |  8

Tackles real time sinks like booking and forms, with approvals keeping you in control.

Usability  |  7

Plain-language chat is easy; connecting apps and permissions takes setup.

Wow Factor  |  8

An agent that negotiates bills while the app is closed still feels new.

Total: 23/30  |  👍 Good

A genuinely useful agent with serious security engineering, held back by US-only availability and trust Meta still has to earn.

Key Takeaways

Muse moves Meta's AI past chatting and into doing, handling errands like travel booking and bill negotiating while you get on with your day. 

It is free to try in the US with thoughtful guardrails, but start small, connect apps gradually, and keep an eye on that usage meter.

Cool Tip Snapshot

• Feature Name: Muse by Meta
• Platform(s): Web (muse.ai), iOS, Android, WhatsApp
• Quick Benefit: An AI agent that completes errands and multi-step tasks for you, with your approval
• Best For: Busy home users and professionals drowning in small tasks
• Access Type: Free with usage limit; subscription ($20/mo Power, $100/mo Maximum); rolling out in the US
• Difficulty: Easy

Try It Yourself

Head to muse.ai or grab the Muse app and hand it one small errand this week, like finding a cheaper flight or drafting a tricky email. 

Then tell us in the comments how it did. 

If this tip saved you time, share it with family, friends, and coworkers, and subscribe to the One Cool Tip newsletter so you never miss the next one.

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Build and Publish a Website With ChatGPT Sites

Build and Publish a Website With ChatGPT Sites

ChatGPT Sites can turn a written description into a hosted website, dashboard, web app, or game without requiring a separate deployment service. You can preview the result, request changes in plain language, control who can see it, and publish it from ChatGPT.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

September 8, 2026

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Building a website often requires several services. 

You may need a design tool, code editor, hosting provider, database, analytics platform, and domain manager before anyone can visit what you created.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Turn your next website idea into a working, shareable Site with one detailed ChatGPT prompt.

ChatGPT Sites brings much of that process into ChatGPT. 

Describe the website or app you want, review what ChatGPT builds, request changes, and publish the finished project to a hosted address.

Sites can handle more than basic landing pages. 

The service can create websites, dashboards, internal tools, web apps, and games. 

It can also support persistent storage, file uploads, visitor authentication, access controls, analytics, and custom domains when those capabilities are available for your account.

The feature is currently in public beta for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans.

Usage limits, workspace policies, regional availability, and individual account rollout may affect access.  

Turn Complex Research Into Visual Summaries With Gemini Notebook Infographics

Turn Complex Research Into Visual Summaries With Gemini Notebook Infographics

Gemini Notebook now converts pages of dry research notes into structured, visual graphics in a couple of clicks. Here is how you can use the built-in Studio tools to customize, generate, and share presentation-ready visual summaries.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

September 6, 2026

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Sifting through multi-page research reports, project briefs, and technical PDFs often leaves you with pages of text that team members or clients simply skim past. 

While summary bullet points help, visual information captures attention faster and helps ideas stick.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Use the customization pencil in Gemini Notebook’s Studio panel to set your orientation and visual style before generating your visual summary.

Google has added an automated visual generation engine directly inside Gemini Notebook. 

Instead of manually copying data points into graphic design templates, you can turn your uploaded research sources into a complete visual poster with customized layouts, styles, and color schemes.

Edit and Refine Workspace Images with Precision Using Google Pics

Edit and Refine Workspace Images with Precision Using Google Pics

Google Pics eliminates the frustration of starting over with AI image prompts by letting you modify specific objects, text, and regions directly inside your documents. Here is how to access this visual editor at pics.new or right inside Google Docs and Slides.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

September 5, 2026

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Most AI image generators force you into an exhausting cycle: you type a prompt, get an image that is almost perfect, spot one odd detail, and press regenerate only to lose everything you liked about the original. 

Swapping between a web generator, an external graphics suite, and your presentation slide deck just to fix a single misplaced prop or misspelled word drains your focus.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Use Google Pics to isolate and edit single objects in your visuals without regenerating the entire scene.

Google tackled this workflow bottleneck on September 1, 2026, by launching Google Pics. 

Built on the company's Imagen 3 and Gemini foundation models, Pics is a dedicated creative canvas that integrates directly into Google Docs and Google Slides. 

Instead of treating images as flat, unchangeable blocks, it gives you precision control over individual elements, background regions, and even in-image text without altering the rest of your composition.

Put Your Google Drive Files to Work in ChatGPT

Put Your Google Drive Files to Work in ChatGPT

ChatGPT can work with accessible files in Google Drive, including Docs, Sheets, and Slides, without making you upload the same material for every task. Connect the Google Drive plugin, name the source you want, and turn stored information into summaries, comparisons, analyses, or new files.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

September 1, 2026

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You know the file exists. 

The problem is remembering whether it lives in a Drive folder, a Google Doc, a planning Sheet, or last quarter’s Slides deck. 

Finding it is only the first step. 

You still need to read it, pull out the useful details, and turn those details into something new.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Connect Google Drive and turn stored files into finished work.

The Google Drive plugin for ChatGPT shortens that chain. 

Once it is installed and connected, ChatGPT can use Drive content available to the connected account as source material for a task. 

The plugin works across Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 

You can ask for a specific document, refer to Google Drive with an @ mention, or describe the result you need and let ChatGPT choose the installed tool when appropriate.

This is more useful than a one-time file upload when your work depends on material that changes or when several related files live in Drive. 

Availability depends on your ChatGPT plan, workspace settings, and the plugin itself. Managed-workspace administrators may restrict installation or access.

Turn Spreadsheet Rows into Interactive Apps with Sheets Canvas

Turn Spreadsheet Rows into Interactive Apps with Sheets Canvas

Google Sheets now allows you to convert traditional rows and columns into interactive mini-apps using plain language prompts. Discover how Sheets canvas helps you build dynamic visual dashboards, assignment trackers, and event plans without writing a single formula.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 31, 2026

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Most spreadsheet data ends up trapped in dense rows and columns that only make sense to the person who entered them. 

When you want to share progress with team members, plan an event, or track assignments, raw grids often feel stiff, cluttered, and hard to navigate at a glance.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Use Sheets canvas to build interactive mini-apps directly on top of your existing spreadsheet data with a simple prompt.

Google introduced a fresh way to interact with your spreadsheet files called Sheets canvas. Instead of spending hours designing layout grids, nesting formulas, or configuring charts manually, you can tell the built-in Gemini side panel exactly what type of interface you want to see.

Turn Spoken Ideas into Finished Tasks with Gemini Live

Turn Spoken Ideas into Finished Tasks with Gemini Live

Google added major voice-driven productivity upgrades to Gemini Live, letting you organize emails, compile daily briefings, and complete multi-step tasks across Google Workspace. Here is how you can use natural conversation to clear your daily to-do list without touching your screen.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 30, 2026

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Staring at a cluttered inbox or a fragmented calendar first thing in the morning often derails productive momentum before work even starts. 

Most voice assistants can set a single alarm or read the weather forecast, but they stumble when you ask them to handle complex, multi-step workflows across your apps.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Talk to Gemini Live like a personal assistant to triage your Gmail inbox and organize your calendar completely hands-free.

Google updated Gemini Live to bridge that gap.

 Instead of treating voice as a simple command trigger, Gemini Live functions as an interactive delegate capable of managing emails, synthesizing schedules, and handing off complex tasks in the background through Google Workspace tools.

Organize Your AI Work with Claude Projects

Organize Your AI Work with Claude Projects

Claude Projects turns scattered AI conversations into organized workspaces for specific subjects, clients, or recurring tasks. Each project can contain related chats, reusable instructions, and reference files.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 25, 2026

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A long list of unrelated AI conversations quickly becomes difficult to manage. 

Instructions for one assignment are buried in an old chat, reference files must be uploaded again, and Claude may need the same background information every time you begin a new conversation.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Create a Claude Project for work you repeat.

Claude Projects offers a more organized approach. 

You can create a dedicated workspace for a newsletter, research assignment, household project, class, client, or vacation. 

Inside the project, Claude can use shared instructions and uploaded reference material across multiple conversations.

Projects are available to all Claude users. 

Free accounts can create up to five projects. 

Paid plans provide expanded project knowledge through retrieval-augmented generation, commonly called RAG.

ChatGPT for Teens Adds Smarter Study Tools and Safeguards

ChatGPT for Teens Adds Smarter Study Tools and Safeguards

ChatGPT for Teens gives students guided learning tools while adding age-appropriate protections and optional controls for families. Here is what changes for teen accounts and how parents can configure the experience.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 22, 2026

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ChatGPT Is Growing Up With Its Youngest Users.

A teenager who asks ChatGPT to solve an algebra problem may need more than a final answer. 

They need help understanding why the answer works, where their reasoning went wrong and how to solve the next problem independently.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Link your teen’s account and schedule Study Hours.

ChatGPT for Teens is designed around that distinction.

Introduced in August 2026, the experience combines learning features such as Study Mode, quizzes, visual explanations, homework reminders and scheduled Study Hours with additional protections for users ages 13 through 17.

Users who report an age between 13 and 17, or whose accounts OpenAI estimates belong to someone under 18, are automatically placed into the teen experience. 

ChatGPT is not intended for children under 13, and OpenAI requires parental consent for users ages 13 through 17.

Connect Everyday Apps to Google Gemini and Cut Daily Task Friction

Connect Everyday Apps to Google Gemini and Cut Daily Task Friction

Connecting third-party apps directly to Google Gemini lets you book tickets, discover local events, review meeting notes, and manage files without hopping between separate tabs.  Here is how to link newly added apps, configure individual permissions, and call any connected service directly from your prompt window.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 18, 2026

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Switching between your inbox, event apps, cloud storage, and music player to complete a single task wastes valuable focus. 

When an AI assistant operates in isolation, you still carry the burden of copying data, looking up confirmation numbers, or checking calendar openings manually.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Type @ in any Gemini prompt to summon a specific connected app and pull real-time data straight into your chat.

Google has expanded its Connected Apps library (formerly known as Extensions) to link external services directly into Gemini chats. 

The latest wave of integrations adds services including Ticketmaster, Fever, GetYourGuide, Wix, Granola, Otter.ai, Pandora, and iHeartRadio alongside staples like Spotify, OpenTable, WhatsApp, and Google Workspace.

Let a ChatGPT Pet Keep Watch Over Your Work

Let a ChatGPT Pet Keep Watch Over Your Work

The ChatGPT Pets feature adds an animated companion that can show when work is running, waiting for input, ready, or blocked. Here is how to choose a pet, wake it, create a custom character, and understand what works in the desktop app, on the web, and in Codex CLI.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 16, 2026

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When ChatGPT is handling several tasks, the hard part is not always starting the work. 

It is noticing which chat finished, which one needs a decision, and which one ran into trouble.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Wake a ChatGPT Pet to keep an eye on active work.

The Pets feature turns routine status checking into a playful visual shortcut. 

In the desktop app, an animated companion can float above other windows and reflect activity across your chats. 

Select the pet to return to ChatGPT, or select an item in its activity tray to open the chat that needs attention. 

On the web, the pet stays inside supported ChatGPT Work chats and serves mainly as a visual companion.

The feature is optional, and changing the pet does not change ChatGPT's intelligence, personality, answers, or task performance. 

It changes the presentation of activity, not the underlying work.

Turn Off the Visible Watermark on Google Gemini AI Images

Turn Off the Visible Watermark on Google Gemini AI Images

Google now allows you to turn off visible watermarks on AI-generated images, videos, and media files directly in your account settings. Here is how to disable the visible corner sparkle overlay so your downloads stay clean and ready for presentations or personal projects.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 15, 2026

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Generating graphics and illustrations with artificial intelligence has quickly become a standard part of modern productivity. 

However, Google Gemini has traditionally stamped a visible sparkle badge into the corner of generated pictures, forcing creators and professionals to crop or edit their files before putting them into slide decks or social feeds.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Turn off the visible media watermark in Gemini Settings to download clean graphics instantly.

Google has introduced an official setting that lets users turn off the visible watermark on AI generations across supported accounts.

Let Google Maps AI Find and Order Your Dinner

Let Google Maps AI Find and Order Your Dinner

Google Maps can now handle multi-step restaurant ordering directly through conversational prompts. By combining Gemini AI models with route data and merchant partners, Ask Maps lets you build and place food orders while you travel.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

August 11, 2026

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Deciding what to eat after a long workday often feels harder than it should. 

You open one app to check restaurant ratings, another to compare menus, and a navigation map to see if the location sits anywhere near your evening commute home. 

By the time you finish toggling between screens, dinner feels like an obstacle course.

Here’s a Cool Tip: Tell Ask Maps What You Crave and Let AI Handle Your Takeout Order.

Google is streamlining that hassle by turning its navigation assistant into an active ordering agent.

Instead of doing all the legwork yourself, you can describe exactly what you want to eat, where you are headed, and any dietary restrictions you have. 

The app finds an open spot, builds your custom order, and prepares your cart for checkout.