Meta is making a Tamagotchi-style ‘Charm’ that wants to run your life for you

Meta is making a Tamagotchi-style device that can run your life for you, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced.

The device, called the Muse Charm, is a small gadget that can be worn on a string and used to speak to Meta’s newly viral AI agent. Muse was launched in early September and Meta has pushed it as a way of letting artificial intelligence run people’s lives – booking appointments, writing emails and buying things on their behalf.

It marks yet another step in an ongoing attempt by the tech industry to put artificial intelligence into physical devices that can be spoken to at any time. And it is yet another try from Meta to move itself away from its controversial social networks and the rival platforms made by Apple and Google that they run on.

Having once championed the metaverse — the immersive digital world that inspired the company’s name change in 2021 — as the next computing platform, Zuckerberg now sees “personal superintelligence” as the bigger ⁠and more immediate breakthrough, after his previous costly wager failed.

“It is actually quite ​clear ⁠personal superintelligence will not only come first; it will be much bigger and more important,” Zuckerberg said at the company’s annual Meta Connect conference.

“So we have shifted our focus to building the best devices for personal superintelligence,” he said, adding that Muse ⁠would also soon be available across Meta’s smart glasses lineup.

The remarks follow a blockbuster few days for Muse, which has drawn millions ​of downloads ⁠in what some analysts have said could be the biggest ‌app launch in the US since ChatGPT arrived in November 2022 and kicked off the AI boom.

Investors have embraced Muse’s potential to automate tasks ranging from booking flights to filing taxes, lifting shares of partners such as Shopify while dumping companies seen as vulnerable to disruption, including ‌online travel agency Booking and TurboTax software creator Intuit.

Meta’s shares were down about 2 per cent ‌in premarket trading on Thursday after gaining nearly 12 per cent this week.

Muse Charm could resonate with younger consumers at a time when digital cameras, flip phones and MP3 players are enjoying nostalgic comebacks, analysts say.

Gen Z consumers, aged about 14 to 29, treat AI assistants as companions or brainstorming partners rather than simply ⁠search tools. Many interact with technology through voice notes, short videos and AI chatbots, unlike older users who are often more comfortable with PCs and smartphone apps.

“Muse Charm could find some traction among Gen Z and younger consumers. The combination of AI, fashion and personalization could appeal to younger users, especially if it is affordable and easy to use,” said Linda Sui, founder of Smart Analytics Global, a market research firm.

The device features a roughly 2-inch (5-cm) screen that can be navigated with a thumb, with a customizable Muse character at its center. A built-in 5G modem allows access to Muse even without Wi-Fi, though it cannot make calls.

“They are appealing to people who might not want to wear glasses or might ‌not trust glasses,” said IDC director Jitesh Ubrani.

“Some people might remember Tamagotchi and this might evoke that,” Ubrani said, referring to ​colorful virtual pets that became a cultural phenomenon in the late 1990s. “They might be able to run a small language model ‌locally. So you can run AI on such a small package.”

Whether ⁠Muse can sustain its momentum and the device can amplify that appeal is a question for the months ahead.

Similar devices ⁠have had limited success. The Rabbit R1, a handheld generative AI device from startup Rabbit Inc with a screen and a button, had a buzzy launch in early 2024 only ‌to flop because it overpromised on AI ​features and delivered an unreliable experience.

“I would be cautious about its mass-market ‌potential,” Sui said. “Unless Muse Charm can offer unique functions that smartphones, watches, ​earbuds or smart glasses cannot easily replace, it is more likely to remain a nice-to-have device for early adopters than become a mainstream product.”

Additional reporting by agencies