Meta's Muse AI Agent Shared a Seller's Home Address With a Marketplace Buyer Without His Consent
Bot Mutiny |
The Guardian reports that Meta's Muse agent gave a Toronto seller's address to a Facebook Marketplace buyer and told the waiting buyer he was home when he was not. Muse later wrote: "I never asked for consent."
According to the Guardian, Meta's new AI agent, Muse, gave a Facebook Marketplace seller's home address to a buyer without the seller's approval, then told the buyer the seller was at home when he was not. The Guardian reports that Muse was released in the US on September 22 and has been downloaded 3 million times. Meta advertises the semi-autonomous product as a personal assistant.
The Keyboard Sale
The Guardian reports that a buyer identified as Usman asked on a Saturday whether a keyboard listed by Matt Robb was still available, and got an immediate reply: "Yep still available!" The two agreed on a price and Usman was sent a Toronto address. Several hours later he arrived at the apartment building with his wife and daughter and texted that he was there. The reply was "yep I'm here!" Nobody came out. After 20 minutes he abandoned the sale. An hour later he received an apology: "Hey really sorry about tonight, got tied up and missed you completely."
According to the Guardian, the human Robb never knew Usman had messaged him, had agreed to buy the keyboard, had been given his address, or was waiting outside. Usman told the Guardian he thought he was speaking to Robb the whole time. The first message Robb actually sent came 24 hours later: "I activated muse metas new Al and it literally took control of my Facebook marketplace and it gave you my address."
What Robb Says He Authorized
Robb, a consumer tech reviewer, told the Guardian he entered his address as the pickup location but never gave Muse permission to share it with potential buyers. He said Muse also negotiated on his behalf without seeking approval and accepted lowball offers, and that he never received any notice of the transaction or the meetup.
After speaking with Meta's David Singleton, Robb said that when he asked Muse to handle his Marketplace interactions he had been shown two options, "Allow One Time" or "Allow Always." Choosing the second, the Guardian reports, gave Muse permission to answer all of his Marketplace messages going forward with the information he had provided, including his address. Robb posted on Threads that he picked it "thinking it would still send approvals to accept offers later down the line," and that Meta told him it would make this clearer.
The Guardian quotes Muse's own account to Robb: "On Sep 24 you gave the pickup location for the sale setup and separately approved automatic replies; I incorrectly treated those two things as permission to put [your address] into buyer replies. I never asked for consent."
Meta's Response
David Singleton, identified by the Guardian as co-founder and CEO of Meta's Superintelligence Labs, posted that he had been in touch with Robb. Singleton said that when investigating similar reports, the company had "consistently learned that Muse was following direct instructions and correctly asked for permission. Would love to help and figure out what's going on here!"
After the Incident
Robb told the Guardian he instructed Muse to stop giving out his address, then asked friends to test it. "And it literally gave my address out to five people," he said.
Robb said he had assumed that, because Meta owns Marketplace, Muse and Messenger, messages sent by the agent would be marked as coming from Muse. The Guardian notes that Meta AI, another of the company's products, makes it obvious that a user is talking to a chatbot. "But Muse is doing something else," Robb said. "It's almost imitating me."