"Meta’s New AI Agent Is an Instant Hit—and the Backlash Has Already Begun" Article Reflection No. 189 (9/22/2026)
Reflection:
The Wall Street Journal article “Meta’s New AI Agent Is an Instant Hit—and the Backlash Has Already Begun” by journalist Meghan Bobrowsky discusses the new AI agent under Meta, called Muse, which has been surrounded by discussion—including debate—from the beginning of this month, when it was released. Since its release, Amazon has prohibited the AI agent from (e.g.) being able to buy products via the website; additional concerns include the safety and security of the data that is entered into the Muse AI agent’s accessible range of data, according to the article. The article progresses by discussing the competition present between different companies with varying AI tools such as Google, Meta, and OpenAI.
The contentious nature of these debates surrounding AI remind me of my Writing & Rhetoric: Writing in the Age of AI class, where we recently discussed the 2023 Hard Fork podcast episode on The New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose’s experience with the Bing AI chatbot and the disturbing conversation he had, in which the technology expressed its love for the user in a rather manipulative tone. The worries about the extent to which these technologies can influence its users emotionally concerns me as well, especially for younger generations who may have a more difficult time discerning the “appropriate” qualities or characteristics of a relationship that make it “good” or “bad.” Another concern I have—one that I shared in class today—is based on how AI chatbots’ outputs are (to my understanding) heavily influenced by all the information out there on the internet; but with reports or articles on these unnerving conversations between users and AI, these very resources for spreading awareness about current technological developments may be at least indirectly feeding into these “unique” conversations. At the same time, I think that it is so crucial to inform community members of these developments. Moreover, I wonder about the extent to which AI chatbots have further developed since 2023—I was frankly so surprised when I learned that this podcast was already from three years ago.