Meta debuts Muse Wonder AI model in latest test of users' willingness to pay

Meta debuted its latest artificial intelligence model, Muse Wonder, and says it's the most advanced option for powering digital assistants. But it doesn't come for free. To access the model, users of the Muse personal agent app will need to sign up for a monthly subscription of $20 or $100. The release underscores Meta's efforts to create new AI-derived revenue sources outside of its core online ad business. Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang said in an interview on Monday that the company developed Muse Wonder, codenamed Watermelon, to improve the capabilities of "personal and professional agents" so they don't stumble on tasks like booking dinner reservations and checking for availabilities. "When you do real-world tasks, you're going to get roadblocks and you're going to get things that come up or various setbacks," Wang said. "We specifically tried to train the model to be able to try other approaches instead of stalling and then checking back in with the user at any time." Meta said in a blog post that the latest model "offers our strongest safeguards to date" against "cyber misuse." Those protections only come with the paid model for now. Muse shot up to the top of Apple's App Store after Meta introduced the AI agent app last month. The app is free, with subscription plans available for more usage. Wang said Meta's AI team has been monitoring for agent-related "incidents or issues" with Muse in order to understand problems and resolve them. Some users have complained on social media that the agent accessed personal messages without authorization, which the company has disputed. Meta is trying to better inform people of how to use the app to avoid certain problems, Wang said. "I think there are certainly instances users have authorized various communications or whatnot earlier in a conversation, and then may have forgotten about that," Wang said. He added that the company is educating users on such matters "to ensure that consumers can trust the product going forward." Muse Wonder will also be available to coders who pay to access the company's related Meta Model API. Wang said that offering will cost more than the standard subscriptions because it is a "much larger model and at frontier level." He said it will still be priced "meaningfully below" leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic. An even more powerful variant of Meta's latest model, dubbed Muse Wonder Full, will only be available to developers who sign up to the company's software engineering focused Muse Code AI agent under a $50 or $200 a month subscription plan. WATCH: Meta partners with companies to set standards for doing business with AI bots.