Victoria Song on Meta Muse’s Cuteness

The useful part

The number-one reason why is that I am horribly vulnerable when faced with extreme cuteness. Alas, at Meta Connect, I couldn't escape this pink-cheeked fella with his plush ivory fur, and so I finally downloaded the app once I returned to my hotel room. My eye twitched with maximum cute aggression when Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth showed us his Muse agent Cooper.

How it works

• The duderino was dressed in a lil pilot outfit because he's Boz's test pilot.
• My face scrunched with rage when Cooper picked up his pudgy round arms to wave.
• The tiny demon in my head thought to itself, "I WANT TO SQUISH ITS LITTLE FACE." [...] Most people I know would say that Meta stuffing an AI agent into everything and anything feels sinister.
• I just think it's weird that Muse wants me to give it a name and design a cartoon mascot for it.
• I can see why some people see it as cute in the way it's clearly intended to be cute.

What to take from it

Sure, some of that is because I was busy testing other devices. I don't think it's because I'm stronger than Song.

Details worth keeping

He was plastered on every screen during the keynote. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen at a tech keynote. Tell me it doesn't make the corners of your mouth twitch slightly upward.