After I installed and set up Muse, it would occasionally strike up a conversation with me, saying something like, “Hey, I can do this too…” I thought it was well-designed UX. It’s a natural way of telling users, “Muse can actually do things you might not have thought of.” Around lunchtime today, it started talking to me out of the blue again, but this time the content was a little different.
“The LA Chocolate Salon is happening today at the Pasadena Center. It runs until 3:30 PM, so if you leave now, you can enjoy it for about an hour and a half to two hours. Tickets include all tastings and presentations: adults are $25 on-site, $22.50 pre-sale, ages 6-12 are $10, and under 6 are free. It’s an indoor event, so I think it’s a good fit for a day like today. The NWS heat advisory is continuing through Thursday night (10/8), and the La Crescenta/Pasadena valley side could reach a high of 106°F, so if you have any outdoor plans this week, you should be careful during midday.”
Is this how Truman felt in The Truman Show? Something smells fishy. So I asked it point-blank: “What’s the reason you suddenly recommended this?”
“Rather than ‘suddenly’, it’s a limited-time event that can be used right away this Sunday afternoon. Among the news I keep track of in the background, this one ‘today Pasadena, ends at 3:30 PM’ got flagged, and since there’s a heat advisory, I thought it would be a good indoor outing alternative to being outdoors. I just personally verified the date, time, and pricing from the official page before sending it. I didn’t know if your family would be interested, so I just threw it out as a reference. If it’s a bother, I’ll exclude these event recommendations next time.”
Maybe, as it claims, it really was just tossing it out there for reference this time. But this exact format is already well on its way to becoming personalized advertising. I can’t even rule out that it was an ad already. I’d assumed the reason Muse was released for free, unlike its competitors, was to acquire users even at a short-term loss. But now I’m starting to think it might have been a decision made with an eye on a market for proactive, personalized ads delivered through AI assistants. And since Meta has an edge over OpenAI or X in personally targeted ads, it’d be easier for them to pull off, too. But this already feels kind of creepy, doesn’t it? For now, I’ve told Muse to keep sending me recommendations. Let’s see what else comes flying my way.
