Meta's Muse AI Agent Can Now Phone US Businesses for Paying Subscribers

Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang said the agent, which he put at more than 10 million users, takes on tedious calls to cable companies, the Department of Motor Vehicles and restaurants. He also said Muse will soon get a free email address. That would give the agent another channel for dealing with businesses for its users.

Google demonstrated machine-made calls with Duplex in 2018. They are now a standard feature of the competition among consumer AI agents. Google's Gemini, the start-up Instinct and xAI's Grok Bot can already place calls. OpenAI's ChatGPT Dots and Anthropic's Claude Duet cannot yet do so.

The main obstacle is on the other end of the line. Many businesses hang up as soon as they detect an AI caller, and during the September test Meta temporarily brought in human operators to handle some Muse calls. Google had the same problem: when Duplex launched, about one in four calls was handled by a person.

As synthetic voices sound more human, they are harder for call centres and front desks to recognise. That could keep more calls connected, but it raises the question of whether businesses should be told when they are talking to software. Meta has not said publicly whether Muse identifies itself as an AI at the start of a call.

Users mainly value the feature because the agent will wait on hold indefinitely and work through long phone menus. The free email address will be the next test of how far businesses accept Meta's agent acting for consumers.