Meta says US users can now video chat with their Muse AI avatar

Meta's AI agent can now take calls as a customizable animated avatar, ahead of the launch of a Tamagotchi-like wearable designed to bring Muse to life. Muse Voice, a feature that lets users call and video chat with Meta’s consumer AI agent, Muse, is now available to everyone in the U.S., the company announced on Thursday. First introduced at Meta’s Connect developer conference in September, the video-chatting feature involves new AI models, Muse Realtime Avatar and Muse Realtime Voice technology, which help power the digital avatar that chats with the user. While other AI competitors offer voice chat features, Meta’s Muse offers a cute, animated avatar (nicknamed Jolly), which users interact with as they ask questions or request tasks to be handled on their behalf.

Users can also customize the avatar as they choose, changing it to something that looks more like a person, animal, or some other character. The company believes that anthropomorphizing Muse in this way could make consumers feel more connected to their AI agent — a connection that could grow even stronger as they begin to engage in live conversations with it. As the Muse avatar speaks, Meta says it will use “subtle expressions and gestures” that match the tone of the conversation. (Muse doesn’t actually “see” the user, but it hears them and reacts based