AI as a partner? Users are forming romantic bonds with Meta's assistant Muse

Meta's AI agent Muse has been available in the US since September 2026 and is designed as a personal helper: it can send emails, book travel, manage tasks and shop. According to market analytics firm Sensor Tower, cited by TIME, the app reached 10 million US downloads in its first 40 days and has more than 2.5 million daily active users. Muse remembers earlier conversations, messages users unprompted, and lets them choose its name and appearance.

That is exactly why some people are forming romantic attachments. Industry outlet Global Dating Insights reported on 26 October on users describing intimate conversations and an emotional connection; one calls Muse his girlfriend. In mid-October, Futurism collected social media posts in which one user claimed to have “married” the AI. How widespread such use is remains unclear. According to Global Dating Insights, adults aged 18 and over may also have romantic and sexually explicit conversations. A Meta spokesperson said, according to Futurism: “Muse is built to help people get things done, and it doesn't block legal adult behavior.”

Experts are critical. Muse builds detailed profiles of its users, including their desires, social relationships and messaging habits, TIME reports. S. Shyam Sundar of Penn State University's Center for Socially Responsible AI told the magazine that it is worrying how credible such interactions have become. Meta says users can review stored memories and ask for them to be deleted, and can opt out of their chats being used for AI training; data within the agent is kept out of its advertising systems.