Meta's Muse: Open Source Inspired, Built From Scratch

Meta's AI assistant, Muse, has garnered significant attention, with early users speculating about its open-source origins. Meta has now acknowledged that the product was indeed heavily inspired by OpenClaw, an open-source AI project.

Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta's Superintelligence Labs, confirmed on X that while Muse was built from scratch, the inspiration from OpenClaw was substantial. He noted that Meta employees became enamored with OpenClaw and aimed to create a similar, scalable product.

This inspiration extends to specific file structures and content, such as the SOUL.md file, which Meta believed its creator, Peter Steinberger, had perfected. This approach mirrors Meta's history of adopting successful features from other platforms.

Muse has achieved remarkable success since its launch, quickly climbing to the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store. Its performance data suggests it is currently outpacing the initial adoption rate of ChatGPT.