What they did
Sato, a reporter at The Verge, tested Muse on everyday shopping jobs. She asked it to find one specific face moisturizer, the lowest price per bar for granola bars, and mattresses under a set price. She also gave it photos of a vintage dress she has been hunting, with the year it is from, keywords, notes on similar items and the secondhand platforms to start on. On The RealReal she tested a loop: Muse added the ten newest listings from a favourite brand to her cart and re-added them each time the 20-minute hold expired, all day, with no intention of buying.
How it went
The results were patchy. Target's bot check stopped Muse one day and let it through the next, then blocked it again on the mattress search minutes after it had pulled from the site. For granola bars it returned Sam's Club, Walmart and Costco options but said Amazon, which hard-blocks it, might have been cheaper and it could not check. It also suggested a grocery chain that does not ship to her address. With the waiting and the corrections, she reckons searching herself would have been faster. It never found the dress, but it did flag an upcoming auction of items from the same brand. The cart-holding loop worked, which she found uncomfortable on behalf of other shoppers.
Worth knowing
Amazon confirmed it asked Meta to remove it from Muse, and other sites block agents through ordinary bot defences, so a price comparison can quietly be missing the cheapest seller. Meta says users can take over at any time and that Muse asks permission before buying. This is one reporter's test over a short stretch, not long-term use.