Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said his memes about Meta’s Muse assistant were part of an effort to make the company cool again, first reported by Businessinsider. He said coworkers were somewhat surprised by the buzz and that the posts made an impact on growth, though he found that result amusing.
During a recent interview with podcaster David Senra, Wang said thoughts about new Muse memes distracted him during meetings. He described the posts as spur-of-the-moment and said they served a broader goal of making Meta cool again; he also said the internet rewards risk.
Muse marked Meta’s first successful breakthrough in AI technology after its Llama and Spark models failed to find niches already filled by widely used models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Competing AI agents from OpenClaw and Instinct already existed in Silicon Valley circles.
Wang’s growth claim and Muse’s audience advantage are distinct: he said the posts made an impact on growth, while Muse came from a company with several billion potential customers already signed up on Instagram and Facebook.
Muse launched on September 8 and reached the top of Apple’s App Store 10 days later, surpassing ChatGPT. Meta says Muse can help users research, fill out forms, buy items online, book restaurant reservations, find a dog sitter, and connect with services including email, calendars, Spotify, Instagram, and OpenTable.