Meta’s Muse mascotis named Jolly. It's an adorable, cuddly representation ofMeta’s AI agentthat you can dress however you want—like a doll. At the company’s recentMeta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s furry Muse donned a toga and laurel wreath. InInstagramads I saw for Muse, the mascot wore exercise gear and boasted about helping with my fitness goals. Later this year, Meta plans to sell aTamagotchi-style devicefor your Muse character. It’s all verykawaii-coded.
Although Muse’s ability to complete digital tasks rocketed it to the top of the app charts, itsLabubu-adjacentmascot latched this agent onto the cultural zeitgeist. Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, recently posted nonstop memes of Jolly, sometimes insuggestive situations. What remains perplexing to me is why a product for adults—Muse is restricted to those 18 and over—looks just like a well-designedchildren’s toy.
"This is a story in search of a story,” Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts tells WIRED. “People want to be able to create their own avatar with personality and unique style, because it's fun and brings them joy. We require everyone using the Muse app to provide their date of birth, we block people we detect may be under 18 from creating an account, and we do additional checks to help ensure people who say they're adults are actually over 18.”
Mona Sarantakos, vice president of Product Management atMeta Superintelligence Labs, describes the design process for Muse as leaning into “delightful” elements and meant to feel less awkward than chatting with “a corporate logo or entity," in ablog postshe co-authored around Muse's release.
Youth advocates are already pushing back against Meta’s Muse mascot. “Oh my God, it looks like a Teletubby,” says Josh Golin, an executive director atFairplay, a nonprofit that previously lobbied against Meta’s targeting of children. “It’s so clearly a character that would appeal to very young children,” he says. “People who study children’s media understand that those rounded shapes particularly appeal to kids in the preschool age.”
Jolly’s appeal is not limited to those in diapers. Theadorable aestheticof Muse’s mascot also draws me in, a 32-year-old man living in San Francisco. The branding may disarm people of all ages, especially since thebacklash against Metaandgenerative AIcontinues to resonate with many Americans.
“These types of cute factors can make the product seem warm and less threatening,” saysJulian De Freitas, an associate professor of marketing at Harvard who focuses onAI companions. “There’s a high bar that they have to overcome here, because attitudes toward Meta are quite negative after the social addiction rulings.” In August, Metasettled claimsregarding social media addiction, agreeing to add restrictive features for teens on Instagram and Facebook as well as paying out up to $16.7 billion.
Some experts I spoke with were less convinced this design was meant to appeal to children, comparing Muse’s mascot toJapan’s long historyof broadly relying on adorable characters to market technology. Meta’s approach is not unique either. From the annoying chirping ofMicrosoft’s Clippyto the more recent red-shelledOpenClawlobster, AI assistants often revolve aroundanthropomorphized characters.
No matter your age, a cuddly creature representing an AI tool can be disarming, even to the point where you might forget aboutprivacy concerns. For example, Meta trains its AI models on your Muse interactions unless youopt out.
