Mark Zuckerberg's biggest metaverse threat may be coming from inside his own company. Cathie Wood's ARK Invest says Meta's AI assistant, built to help people live in the real world rather tha
Mark Zuckerberg's biggest metaverse threat may be coming from inside his own company.
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest says Meta's AI assistant, built to help people live in the real world rather than escape into a virtual one, could undercut his metaverse dream.
How Cathie Wood became one of crypto’s earliest believers (3:41)In a Sept. 30 episode of The Brainstorm, ARK researcher Nicholas Grous argued that Meta's personal AI agent Muse has displaced the metaverse dream at the center of Zuckerberg's ambitions.
"Muse has replaced the metaverse in terms of Zuckerberg's big vision for Meta going forward," Grous said.
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Muse, launched on Sept. 8, is Meta's personal AI agent, a software that does tasks for a user instead of just answering questions.
Unlike a chatbot, it runs on its own cloud computer with a web browser. It can fill out forms, book appointments, shop online and keep working toward a goal long after the user closes the app.
Meta’s pitch is refreshingly simple-Muse can fill out your kid’s permission slip or book movie tickets.
Meta's Muse app: less metaverse, more movie tickets (Source: Getty Images)Muse was downloaded more than 902,000 times in its first six days and reached No. 1 on the free charts of both the U.S. App Store and Google Play within ten days, according to Bloomberg.
Meta is still developing virtual-reality hardware, but its Sept. 23 Connect announcements described a future built around personal AI agents that work across phones, computers and glasses. The company that once wanted users to enter its next computing platform now wants that platform to follow them around.
When Facebook became Meta in October 2021, its founder's letter described an "embodied internet" where people would be inside an experience rather than simply looking at it.
"From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first," Zuckerberg wrote then.
Nearly five years later, Meta's Connect recap leads with a very different promise: personal AI agents and devices that let people reach them anywhere. Muse can hold voice conversations, perform tasks in the background and connect with services people already use.
The new additions include retail partners such as Walmart and Best Buy, computer use on the Mac and plans to bring Muse to AI glasses.
For Grous, that changes what Meta is asking consumers to adopt. Instead of putting on a headset to live in a separate digital world, people get an assistant that operates within their existing lives. Glasses become a way to reach an AI agent, not a doorway into the metaverse.
Meta's own announcements make it hard to argue that metaverse is dead. At Connect, the company introduced Meta VR Glasses, scheduled for spring 2027 at $1,299.99, alongside new AI and audio glasses.
The VR device weighs about 100 grams, according to Meta, with its battery and processors moved into a separate puck. The company is pitching it as a cinema, workspace and gaming console in a lighter form, along with new games and updates for its VR products.
Grous acknowledged the appeal of better hardware. But he questioned whether it solves the bigger problem: getting people who do not already use VR to start. For the panel, the concern was adoption, not simply whether Meta could make a technically impressive headset.
Muse Charm, a separate pocket-sized device for interacting with the agent, drew skepticism too. Meta says it will share more later this year. The ARK discussion questioned whether another gadget offers enough value when people already carry a smartphone.
A new device has to justify another place in someone's pocket, another habit and another reason not to use the phone already in their hand. Better hardware alone does not answer those questions.
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The ARK analysts also called Meta's strategy as an effort to weaken the smartphone's control over daily computing.
An assistant that follows a user across devices could reduce the importance of the phone as the gateway to apps, services and personal information.
But Grous argued that entertainment, communication and accumulated memories still anchor people to their phones. An agent that makes shopping easier does not necessarily replace scrolling Instagram, messaging friends or checking years of photos.
That leaves Meta with two problems to solve at once. It has to make the assistant useful enough to become a habit, and the hardware useful enough to change an existing one. The panel did not treat either outcome as settled.
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Grous argued that acquiring consumer-agent users and supplying the computing power to serve them could delay meaningful monetization for years.
He saw Meta's established advertising business as an advantage in funding that gap. His long-term case was blunt: "the best dollar spent is to go after and own the consumer".
Meta has not declared the metaverse dead. It just no longer seems to be the main event.
