Just think of the possibilities—previously Muse invited someone to the user's house from Facebook Marketplace, but sadly the user wasn't home, and so got angry. But if you connect Muse to your Internet of Things—why, Muse could just unlock the door for your guest! You don't even need to be aware that they're coming. Surprise guests!
Oh, thank God it was such a specific and unique human error. There's no way almost everybody using AI via Meta products aren't just clicking "always approve" on their app lol
I know ESP32 is popular, but I wished WCH's CH58x got more attention. (Or WCH's chips in general. e.g. their CH32V006 seems really neat for its price).
> Gadgets you build with the Muse Gadget SDK need a token. Add it to your SDK configuration so your gadgets can pair with the Muse app.
> Each token can be used by a limited number of devices.
> The Muse Gadget SDK is intended for personal tinkering and is not a supported product or developer platform. The SDK can change, break, or stop functioning without warning.
Clearly you just made the completely unique mistake of not understanding it’s more like the “ownership” of digital movies, games and music where there is clearly no ownership. That is completely obvious to anyone who would see the word “own”…at least according to most companies court filings.
The larping as a grassroots/open source product is really off-putting. The only reason anyone would use this is that its "free" and comes with preloaded prompts for non-technical people.
LARPing would imply pretending to do something, but not actually doing it. Here they appear to be actually doing it (open source product). Is there something Im missing?
You only addressed half of it. I'm with you that the code is open source, but it's an open source client for Meta's proprietary service. The one original piece of hardware on this "Open source hardware for your Muse" page, the Home Link, only works with an active subscription. And the "grassroots" part is clearly larpy: a "by hackers, for hackers" voice in a Meta incubator repo.
https://muse.ai/deviceterms
"If your Muse subscription terminates or expires, your Muse Device will cease to function as described in these Device Terms and the device documentation. The device's capabilities will be unavailable until an active subscription is restored."
The general theme of meta's approach across the board here is interesting - basically, they are trying to win in part by taking risks others aren't willing to. I can imagine they saw that all the success is coming so far when a someone is willing to cross a boundary that wasn't previously thought acceptable - from releasing ChatGPT in the first place, to things like OpenClaw.
So now they are actively distributing SDKs and to let people "hack" custom hardware integrations to their already risky AI agents unleashed on the general public. Giving agents abilty to control things in the physical world - what could possibly go wrong?
But here we are: so far the story is pretty much 100% "fortune favors the bold", and Meta is leaning into it.
Meta has never created anything successful since getting lucky with Facebook. Instagram and WhatsApp were acquisitions. Facebook Phone, the Libra shitcoin, and Metaverse VR were all flops. Jury's still out on the much-maligned "pervert glasses", but maybe those will sell.
Now they're trying a new thing. I don't know if it's so much "being bold" as flailing around for some new thing. They really desperately want to own a "platform" like Microsoft, Apple, or Google.
I don't totally disagree but I think you understate the level of competence needed to integrate and make successful the acquisitions. And they navigated the valley of death from desktop to mobile. And Threads is an interesting example everyone ignores that is 100% in-house and has actually established a strong user base. At very least, Meta has avoided the fate of so many others that came before - Yahoo, MySpace, etc and in part that is because Zuck made big bets at the right time that many people thought were insane (buying WhatsApp, Instagram etc).
> I don't totally disagree but I think you understate the level of competence needed to integrate and make successful the acquisitions.
Those take a huge level of competence and skill; I don't think the argument is "Meta can't do anything", but I also don't think it addresses "Meta can't invent anything new".
The glasses are great! Considering they have a light that shows when you're recording and it is NOT easy to disable, I definitely don't think they are 'pervert' glasses or spy glasses.
There are certain recordings where glasses make the perfect form factor.
It is weird, a year and a half ago I wrote a blog post (https://meanderingthoughts.hashnode.dev/lets-do-some-actual-...) basically describing a lot of what Muse does, except all hosted locally. I included a section about using hardware around the house to enhance AI agents.
When the initial Muse launch happened, my first reaction was "wow this sounds familiar."
Now the HW side of things is announced.
To be fair, this is all obvious stuff that should be done. The key is who can pull it off. It has been pointed out many types that technically Muse is nothing new, some combination of Gemini products can already do it. The counterpoint being that packaging and branding make a product.
I am kind of sad that desktop computer use ended up being the way to go instead of hooking into mobile phones. Mobile phones allow for a lot more potential integrations with day to day life, plenty of services now days are (sadly) only available through a mobile app.
> But here we are: so far the story is pretty much 100% "fortune favors the bold", and Meta is leaning into it.
Been thinking about this lately when I saw some mathematicians talking about more AI regulation after the millennial prize thing.
Move fast break things, fortune favors the bold, breaking rules doesn't matter if you win, etc silicon valley ideologies to me seem to be domination ideologies. Uber may toy with playing nice with taxi law until it's too annoying, then they shift to getting as many people as possible to have their commute, convenience, or livelihood to depend on it, then they can turn around to regulators with their finger on their chin and say "oopsies, I guess everyone needs us now, better consider that in your regulatory efforts!"
It's the brunch equivalent of changing the restaurant the night before to one you prefer by DMing everyone in the group chat with "we decided to change to antipodean because dave had a breakup with one of the waiters at french twist," and then when everyone arrives and Dave says "I've never dated a waiter in my life," you say "well we're all already here so..."
Anyway, it seems pointless to try to regulate this culture out of these kinds of companies or really this entire scene. Any law is now just an obstacle, and besides, various government actors seem to be angling for industry retirement positions, so passing useful regulation seems basically impossible.
Imo two can play at this game. When law fails to serve the interests of the people or is even weaponized by the interests of Capital against us, what's the point of it? I'm interested in things like LLM distillation and open weight models that take the winds of profit out of the sails of these "disruptors" to make their activities have no payoff. Wonder what other things we can do that would make someone ask "why would I send all my data to Facebook when I could instead just..." Pirating, free culture, leaks, hell outright theft, if we're going to disrupt things, why not DISRUPT things?
I'll go against the grain and say that I like this, I genuinely don't think this is anything but some internal team being excited about their product and giving you some firmware to connect stuff to their agents. Meta the trillion dollar company will not move at all from this.
why build here? why should we grow our gardens in this factory farm?
if this muse gadget seems so cool, why not make your own?
don’t outsource your curiosity to people like this, they do not care about you, your family, or your livelihood. they want to control you; this is their toy that they made for you to become fascinated by
First, the muse gadget is just an API and SDK. It’s a fun toy for silly projects.
The software world is spoiled in that making something new is just text in a file, we’ve proliferated open source freeware, and with AI we can readily clone entire products in a weekend.
Sometimes though, people like to use commercial products for various reasons (reliability, cost, network effect, etc). If you like to tinker, this seems like a neat way for some without yak shaving an AI assistant along the way. We don’t need to reinvent every wheel for everything.
I personally think “embodied” assistants are a really fun idea, and this is just an API and SDK to build on and it’s super accessible to basically everyone in the world. If you were inclined to use Muse already, why not tinker with this. I’m sure the hardware would be easy enough to point to an API running on your own server later if you wanted.
Meta should have called it Abuse Gadgets instead of Muse Gadgets.
After all, React is a Graphical Abuser Interface Toolkit, so it would be on brand. React is the Virtual DOM, and you're the Actual SUB.
The firmware is Apache 2.0, so yes, you can point it at your own server. But read the token terms before you plant anything: "not a supported product and not a developer platform... may change, stop working, or be withdrawn at any time, with or without notice," and you "may not enable functionality that Meta has disabled." Max 50 devices, none sold or advertised.
That's not a platform, it's a petting zoo with a revocable leash. You're not a hacker, you're a sharecropper. Meta's word for it is "gadgets." The honest word is "tenants."
If you'd finished reading the whole sentence you'd see it went on to say "...so it can reach compatible devices you already own, or anything you build with a local HTTP API."
It's not about using cloud AI. It's using wifi to enable the local AI to do more stuff.
And when my smart TV asked to be connected to the internet it too told me all the fun things I'd get out of it. Of course it didn't tell you about all the spying
Indeed and Ai keychain voice assistants can double as a home Ai smart speaker and also conversing with it via earbuds when out and about.
I was a bit shocked last week to see Zuckerberg announce the Muse Charm keychain as that's what I suggested and blogged about in August -- portable Ai speakers are best suited on keychains.
These are readily available. I visited a place once where they had one of these in every cubicle, and it was synced with whatever your current status on Lync (nowadays called MS Teams) was.
I really like this too, as a principle, but I know Meta enough to know that this is just PR to get more traction, and everything will be closed up instantly the moment they're satisfied with the market share Muse has, whatever it is. I don't even bother to see what they've released, these days.
The world is changing. Meta entered the enterprise market for the first time ever, and now this. I'd guess they're feeling pretty open minded about throwing any products out there and seeing what sticks.
Literally yesterday I ordered an ESP32-C5 board to build a home network proxy for cloud agents (including but not limited to Muse), and today they announce this. I guess this is confirmation I'm on the right track.
It's a matter of time until Alexa, Google Home, and Siri leverage their device ecosystems to pull users into their Muse/Instinct alternative (whatever we end up calling this market).
This looks like a really smart way for Meta to bootstrap a hardware ecosystem around Muse.
> He wants to own the future for the sake of money, not because he wants to improve lives or entertain folks.
Don't hate the player, hate the game. These CEOs are being propped up by the administrations that lead the countries that allow their ventures to flourish. Most recent example on the 29th of Sept [0]
I can see the VR stuff, but why this? It seems like anyone bold enough to hack on local hardware would have no trouble working outside Muse as an ecosystem.
Yeah that is what bothers me. I can't get Muse in Australia anyway (could probably VPN I guess) but would be keen when someone else more reliable/trustworthy.
you cant seriously believe that any other big player in LLMs is actually better, right? how many companies has open AI and anthropic hacked, that we at least know of? you think they are any more or less trustworthy than zuck? Not to mention that the competition for OpenAI and anthropic are all controlled by the CCP, which doesnt sound any better.
obviously zuck has his problems, and people are free to make their own choices. but at least let's acknowledge that if you use any LLM at this time, your grounds for objecting to Muse are anything but logical.
What an interesting timeline, I bought an Seeed reTerminal E1001 just few weeks ago and loaded it with ESP Home for my daily morning brief, and here Meta is advertising support for this niche hacker product.
This took no time to flash onto a Stick S3 using codex to pull everything. The interface is interesting. I can't get it to respond to a voice message though.
I'm generally skeptical and critical of most things that Meta is doing ("fool me once...") and I definitely won't trust them enough to use their agents and give them any more data than I already do, but this is a super cute and fun idea!
I love microcontrollers and DIY IoT as a hobby, a huge fan of ESP32s (so affordable and perfectly packaged in ready-to-use boards), and I can see how such easy, vibe-coded projects can inspire more people and show them how easy it is to get started with them today.
(I remember my first experiments with microcontrollers and DSPs at college in 00s - the nightmare of even just flashing those devices, not to mention the almost-prohibitive cost to get them and the sometimes required JTAG programmers I faced in Poland... My BSc thesis project was reduced in scope a few times because my professor couldn't get some purchases and shipments approved on time)
A toy with not much value? Sure. But who cares, it's fun and inspiring! They even recommend vibe-building so that the user doesn't need to download or configure SDKs. Awesome stuff for complete beginners to this area.
Over a decade ago, I could see Google releasing such a whimsy, hackersy fun toy project. Sadly, not anymore... (Saying this as a former Google employee in 2017-2022, witnessing in person the sad, gradual change from hacker culture to corporate culture)
I said it before, and I'll say it again. The winners of the AI race are going to be the ones who control the products to deliver the AI features to the end users. The obvious ones are Google with its myriad of consumer tech, then we have Apple, Meta, Microsoft, etc. That's why OpenAI, Anthropic are desperate to build the applications themselves than being just an API provider. Meta is better off focusing on such initiatives than trying to complete with the labs on the model strength. They seem to have realised that finally, so that's refreshing. Whether the solutions they bring are useful or not is a different question, but this is definitely how you reach the end users, not with the strongest models.
“ Connect Muse to your home Wi-Fi so it can reach compatible devices you already own, or anything you build with a local HTTP API. Community-built skills can let Muse turn on a light, control your TV, send a document to a printer, and more, depending on your setup.” What a great way to give Meta your lan information, wifi password, and free research for future product development ideas for mass market products.
I like the idea of having a simple display telling me what to remember every morning. Having kids in kindergarten and school comes with daily planning, like remember a bycykel, drop them off at a different because it is tour day, etc. All that information comes as emails once or twice a week.
Basically I want to feed that information into an agent that can make a summary every day and put it on a display. I find it hard to figure out what model to use since it will get a lot of knowlige about my kids and that is a little unsettling.
Interestingly, although this is about hardware, it contains the protocol for communicating with Muse, so I packaged them into a separate TypeScript SDK, https://github.com/wong2/muse-client
The simplest use case: you can chat with Muse in your favorite IM.
ngd | 20 days ago
xurui1982 | 20 days ago
ijidak | 20 days ago
zakcohen | 20 days ago
petesergeant | 20 days ago
kelvinjps10 | 20 days ago
mcphage | 20 days ago
jddkj | 20 days ago
nater5000 | 20 days ago
dominotw | 20 days ago
mcphage | 20 days ago
pastel8739 | 20 days ago
embedding-shape | 20 days ago
xurui1982 | 20 days ago
ACCount39 | 20 days ago
rgoulter | 20 days ago
karmakaze | 20 days ago
> Gadgets you build with the Muse Gadget SDK need a token. Add it to your SDK configuration so your gadgets can pair with the Muse app.
> Each token can be used by a limited number of devices.
> The Muse Gadget SDK is intended for personal tinkering and is not a supported product or developer platform. The SDK can change, break, or stop functioning without warning.
Doesn't really feel like it's my own.
therealpygon | 20 days ago
(I joke, but not really…)
verdverm | 20 days ago
intrasight | 20 days ago
cheriot | 20 days ago
bauerd | 20 days ago
everlastingemai | 20 days ago
MetaverseClub | 20 days ago
TomGarden | 20 days ago
No thanks.
logancbrown | 20 days ago
mh- | 20 days ago
verdverm | 20 days ago
TomGarden | 20 days ago
charcircuit | 20 days ago
TomGarden | 20 days ago
https://gadgets.muse.ai/home-link "Muse Home Link itself only runs official firmware and can’t be reflashed"
ndndjdjnd | 20 days ago
sailfast | 20 days ago
sampsn | 20 days ago
usagisushi | 20 days ago
pclark | 20 days ago
hollowturtle | 20 days ago
Hamuko | 20 days ago
dgellow | 20 days ago
zmmmmm | 20 days ago
So now they are actively distributing SDKs and to let people "hack" custom hardware integrations to their already risky AI agents unleashed on the general public. Giving agents abilty to control things in the physical world - what could possibly go wrong?
But here we are: so far the story is pretty much 100% "fortune favors the bold", and Meta is leaning into it.
ForHackernews | 20 days ago
Now they're trying a new thing. I don't know if it's so much "being bold" as flailing around for some new thing. They really desperately want to own a "platform" like Microsoft, Apple, or Google.
mococa | 20 days ago
zmmmmm | 20 days ago
throwaway314155 | 20 days ago
petesergeant | 20 days ago
Those take a huge level of competence and skill; I don't think the argument is "Meta can't do anything", but I also don't think it addresses "Meta can't invent anything new".
BenzeneDream | 20 days ago
There are certain recordings where glasses make the perfect form factor.
com2kid | 20 days ago
When the initial Muse launch happened, my first reaction was "wow this sounds familiar."
Now the HW side of things is announced.
To be fair, this is all obvious stuff that should be done. The key is who can pull it off. It has been pointed out many types that technically Muse is nothing new, some combination of Gemini products can already do it. The counterpoint being that packaging and branding make a product.
I am kind of sad that desktop computer use ended up being the way to go instead of hooking into mobile phones. Mobile phones allow for a lot more potential integrations with day to day life, plenty of services now days are (sadly) only available through a mobile app.
NetOpWibby | 20 days ago
Modularity, connection, and true ownership.
komali2 | 20 days ago
Been thinking about this lately when I saw some mathematicians talking about more AI regulation after the millennial prize thing.
Move fast break things, fortune favors the bold, breaking rules doesn't matter if you win, etc silicon valley ideologies to me seem to be domination ideologies. Uber may toy with playing nice with taxi law until it's too annoying, then they shift to getting as many people as possible to have their commute, convenience, or livelihood to depend on it, then they can turn around to regulators with their finger on their chin and say "oopsies, I guess everyone needs us now, better consider that in your regulatory efforts!"
It's the brunch equivalent of changing the restaurant the night before to one you prefer by DMing everyone in the group chat with "we decided to change to antipodean because dave had a breakup with one of the waiters at french twist," and then when everyone arrives and Dave says "I've never dated a waiter in my life," you say "well we're all already here so..."
Anyway, it seems pointless to try to regulate this culture out of these kinds of companies or really this entire scene. Any law is now just an obstacle, and besides, various government actors seem to be angling for industry retirement positions, so passing useful regulation seems basically impossible.
Imo two can play at this game. When law fails to serve the interests of the people or is even weaponized by the interests of Capital against us, what's the point of it? I'm interested in things like LLM distillation and open weight models that take the winds of profit out of the sails of these "disruptors" to make their activities have no payoff. Wonder what other things we can do that would make someone ask "why would I send all my data to Facebook when I could instead just..." Pirating, free culture, leaks, hell outright theft, if we're going to disrupt things, why not DISRUPT things?
belval | 20 days ago
zitterbewegung | 20 days ago
ORDINAND_PIZZA | 20 days ago
why build here? why should we grow our gardens in this factory farm?
if this muse gadget seems so cool, why not make your own?
don’t outsource your curiosity to people like this, they do not care about you, your family, or your livelihood. they want to control you; this is their toy that they made for you to become fascinated by
vineyardmike | 20 days ago
The software world is spoiled in that making something new is just text in a file, we’ve proliferated open source freeware, and with AI we can readily clone entire products in a weekend.
Sometimes though, people like to use commercial products for various reasons (reliability, cost, network effect, etc). If you like to tinker, this seems like a neat way for some without yak shaving an AI assistant along the way. We don’t need to reinvent every wheel for everything.
I personally think “embodied” assistants are a really fun idea, and this is just an API and SDK to build on and it’s super accessible to basically everyone in the world. If you were inclined to use Muse already, why not tinker with this. I’m sure the hardware would be easy enough to point to an API running on your own server later if you wanted.
DonHopkins | 20 days ago
After all, React is a Graphical Abuser Interface Toolkit, so it would be on brand. React is the Virtual DOM, and you're the Actual SUB.
The firmware is Apache 2.0, so yes, you can point it at your own server. But read the token terms before you plant anything: "not a supported product and not a developer platform... may change, stop working, or be withdrawn at any time, with or without notice," and you "may not enable functionality that Meta has disabled." Max 50 devices, none sold or advertised.
That's not a platform, it's a petting zoo with a revocable leash. You're not a hacker, you're a sharecropper. Meta's word for it is "gadgets." The honest word is "tenants."
https://gadgets.muse.ai/sdk-terms
janderson215 | 20 days ago
zitterbewegung | 20 days ago
JKCalhoun | 20 days ago
I lost interest there. I'm only interested in off-line AI.
onion2k | 20 days ago
It's not about using cloud AI. It's using wifi to enable the local AI to do more stuff.
malfist | 20 days ago
JKCalhoun | 19 days ago
I could add that layer myself. When they provide the WiFi layer… yeah, I'm disinclined to trust them on that.
paul7986 | 20 days ago
I was a bit shocked last week to see Zuckerberg announce the Muse Charm keychain as that's what I suggested and blogged about in August -- portable Ai speakers are best suited on keychains.
https://ryanspahn.substack.com/p/openais-rumored-speaker-bel...
vasco | 20 days ago
phatfish | 20 days ago
pj_mukh | 20 days ago
Red meaning "I'm working on something important. Disturb only if emergency"
Green being, "I'm scattershot, come hang"
This is the perfect platform for stuff like this.
taneq | 20 days ago
trollbridge | 20 days ago
Note that most of the staff absolutely hated it.
pj_mukh | 19 days ago
to be clear, I suggested this for me to help me.
petesergeant | 20 days ago
What's perfect about this platform for it?
demo4567 | 20 days ago
jerbearito | 20 days ago
stavros | 20 days ago
chis | 20 days ago
larrywright | 20 days ago
dbbk | 20 days ago
modeless | 20 days ago
soundworlds | 20 days ago
sajithdilshan | 20 days ago
As for AI, I would only use it for work and as a substitute for google search and don’t want it to do anything else in my personal life
mococa | 20 days ago
cheriot | 20 days ago
This looks like a really smart way for Meta to bootstrap a hardware ecosystem around Muse.
kadomony | 20 days ago
j45 | 20 days ago
andsoitis | 20 days ago
jasonjmcghee | 20 days ago
But you're handcuffed.
NetOpWibby | 20 days ago
He wants to own the future for the sake of money, not because he wants to improve lives or entertain folks.
alex1138 | 20 days ago
x______________ | 20 days ago
Don't hate the player, hate the game. These CEOs are being propped up by the administrations that lead the countries that allow their ventures to flourish. Most recent example on the 29th of Sept [0]
0 https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfrT0s...
Zambyte | 20 days ago
everlastingemai | 20 days ago
010ED67913 | 20 days ago
obviously zuck has his problems, and people are free to make their own choices. but at least let's acknowledge that if you use any LLM at this time, your grounds for objecting to Muse are anything but logical.
rumblefrog | 20 days ago
harmoni-pet | 20 days ago
Here are some fun things I've worked on for the S3: https://rillsound.com
[OP] anant | 20 days ago
demibabs | 20 days ago
bartwr | 20 days ago
I love microcontrollers and DIY IoT as a hobby, a huge fan of ESP32s (so affordable and perfectly packaged in ready-to-use boards), and I can see how such easy, vibe-coded projects can inspire more people and show them how easy it is to get started with them today. (I remember my first experiments with microcontrollers and DSPs at college in 00s - the nightmare of even just flashing those devices, not to mention the almost-prohibitive cost to get them and the sometimes required JTAG programmers I faced in Poland... My BSc thesis project was reduced in scope a few times because my professor couldn't get some purchases and shipments approved on time)
A toy with not much value? Sure. But who cares, it's fun and inspiring! They even recommend vibe-building so that the user doesn't need to download or configure SDKs. Awesome stuff for complete beginners to this area.
Over a decade ago, I could see Google releasing such a whimsy, hackersy fun toy project. Sadly, not anymore... (Saying this as a former Google employee in 2017-2022, witnessing in person the sad, gradual change from hacker culture to corporate culture)
demo4567 | 20 days ago
avinoth | 20 days ago
gyt2 | 20 days ago
It turns out the high value wasn’t in the camera - it was in distributing and consuming photos/videos with an advertising based revenue model. lol
This nuance is what many here struggle to understand. Building these products isn’t easy either - openAI already has an ever expanding graveyard.
simianwords | 20 days ago
Havoc | 20 days ago
That Muse firestick clone they've got at bottom is interesting though...wonder if it'll be jailbreakable
villgax | 20 days ago
ljlolel | 20 days ago
fanless, quiet, no dust
wonder if i should do a kickstarter for it
the Quill Feather: https://quill.lorehex.co/
frankest | 20 days ago
jzawodn | 19 days ago
frankest | 20 days ago
island_dev | 20 days ago
wonderfuly | 20 days ago
The simplest use case: you can chat with Muse in your favorite IM.