Meta Muse AI is learning more about you than you may realise: Here’s what it tracks

Meta's Muse AI assistant is designed to do more than simply answer questions or handle routine tasks. The service can access parts of your digital life, including your emails and Instagram, and is positioned as an assistant that can handle everyday activities such as grocery shopping and cancelling subscriptions. But a TIME analysis of Muse's internal instructions has highlighted another side of the service. The AI can continuously build your detailed profiles based on what you discuss and the people you mention. These profiles can include everything from interests and social connections to disagreements and behavioural patterns, raising questions about how much personal context an AI assistant should retain.

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Muse keeps updating what it knows about you

According to the report, Muse updates your profile every hour based on information from chats, messages, and emails it has accessed. The profiles can map your social relationships, including how you met people, what you have in common, past disagreements and the tension and alliance between you.

The system can also infer goals that you have not directly stated and identify the kind of prompts that may work best for you. One inetrnal example suggests that you may respond better to short nudges after 10 pm. Muse also runs a nightly analysis of that day's conversations.

The profiling is not necessarily limited to people who use Muse themselves. People you mention in your conversations can also become part of this mapping, even if they have never used the assistant. Muse is also instructed to personalise its communication by picking up on inside jokes, memorable phrases and shared context.

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Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings. The company said Muse remembers information that users choose to share so that it can provide a more helpful experience.

Meta says users remain in control

Muse has reportedly crossed 5 million downloads and reached No. 1 on the US App Store since its release last month. Meta runs each Muse assistant in a dedicated virtual machine within its cloud infrastructure. You can also export copies of your Muse files. According to Meta, this data is not shared with its advertising system or with other Muse agents.

However, Meta uses some observations to improve the product. Muse’s internal instructions say agents can share de-identified lessons, including information about which types of nudges are persuasive. Meta says identifying information is removed before these learnings are used.

Meta has said it plans to introduce encryption later this year that would prevent even the company from accessing Muse data. That protection is not currently available. Users can also view Muse’s files and session logs through its file browser.

Meta says users can ask Muse to forget specific information. However, TIME found that asking the assistant to forget something does not necessarily remove the original message containing that information. Muse’s instructions also tell it not to highlight this distinction to users.