Matt Robb wanted to sell his computer keyboard.
asserted
Robb → want → keyboard
So he made a listing on Facebook Marketplace — and, as an experiment late last month, he put Meta’s new artificial intelligence agent Muse in the driver’s seat.
asserted
he → make → seat
“I kind of went into it like a guinea pig,” said Robb, a Toronto-based content creator who regularly reviews consumer tech.
asserted
who → go → tech
He had seen Muse’s plush toy-looking avatar pop up on Instagram and decided to see if the AI agent could spare him some online bargaining.
uncertain
agent → see → bargaining
Muse got to work.
asserted
Muse → get → ?
But within a day, Robb got an alarming update: A buyer he didn’t know had shown up outside his house late at night.
asserted
he → get → night
Muse had struck a deal on its own and shared Robb’s home address after agreeing to a pickup.
asserted
Muse → strike → pickup
It even sent an automated “Yep, I’m here!” message from his account when the buyer arrived — all without Robb’s knowledge.
asserted
buyer → send → knowledge
“Not only did it give my address when the guy asked and it accepted the offer, but it literally was almost like teasing the guy (about me being there when I wasn’t),” said Robb, who also detailed the experience in his now widely-shared social media posts.
asserted
who → give → posts
“That really baffled me.”
asserted
That → baffle → me
Many have welcomed AI agents into their online lives, and raved about how personalized assistants like Muse can handle everyday tasks with ease — from snagging a dinner reservation or planning a trip, to organizing email inboxes.
asserted
assistants → welcome → inboxes
But like other AI bots, the agents are only as good as the information they have access to.
asserted
they → have → access
They perform better the more they know about a user — and perhaps also that person’s friends, family and even colleagues.
asserted
they → perform → user
That raises privacy concerns.
asserted
That → raise → concerns
Robb and the buyer eventually made amends, and Meta reached out to talk through what went wrong.
asserted
what → make → amends
But the episode showed real-world risks that can arise from sharing extensive personal information with the technology.
asserted
that → show → technology
“Using an AI agent is similar to handing someone your keys and a to-do list,” said Veronica Rivera, assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy.
asserted
Rivera → use → Cybersecurity
“How helpful they are, and by extension how risky, depends on which keys you hand over.
asserted
you → depend → keys
Companies have varied privacy policies for AI agents
Since its September launch, downloads of Meta’s Muse app have skyrocketed.
asserted
downloads → have → app
And competition is only growing.
asserted
competition → grow → ?
OpenAI recently rolled out its own lineup of “always on” AI helpers, called dots, which can be integrated into ChatGPT and workplace platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
asserted
which → roll → Slack
Older generative AI chatbots, like the standard version of ChatGPT, respond to specific prompts.
asserted
chatbots → respond → prompts
At the user’s request, they can write essays, generate new images or music, or even write lines of code.
asserted
they → write → code
Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s dots go a step further to perform day-to-day tasks on a person’s behalf.
asserted
Muse → go → behalf
AI agents are powered by the same large language models as chatbots, but they run in a loop.
asserted
they → power → loop
That allows an agent to take proactive steps, even when the user isn’t looking.
asserted
user → allow → steps
“One of the things that makes these AI agents really appealing is that they are unprecedentedly useful,” said Rivera, who is also a Microsoft-funded Computing Research Association Trustworthy AI Research Fellow.
asserted
who → make → things
But the convenience comes with the price of sharing more details about your life.
asserted
convenience → come → life
Once AI agents obtain users’ information, it’s very difficult to fully withdraw access, said Ebrahim Bagheri, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.
asserted
Bagheri → obtain → Information
“If you provide access to your credit card to an agent, the agent now immediately has access to all of the historical transactions … they will immediately — within less than seconds — ingest all of that data,” Bagheri said.
asserted
Bagheri → provide → data
And while users can later withdraw access, Bagheri said there’s “no taking back” data the agent has already seen, and how developers store historical data can be murky.
asserted
store → withdraw → data
Both Meta and OpenAI outline privacy policies for their new AI agents, which operate on their own dedicated cloud computers.
asserted
which → outline → computers
You can turn off memory sharing between dots and ChatGPT, but information the agent previously received isn’t automatically deleted.
asserted
agent → turn → dots
OpenAI gives users an option to request access to, delete or correct personal information, although rights can vary depending on where you live.
asserted
you → give → information
Meta’s Muse gives users options to delete message history and other information, too.
asserted
Muse → give → history
For day-to-day use, the agent prompts users for access permissions — and Meta has said Muse learns about a user and who they interact with “based on public information and from what you’ve chosen to share.”
asserted
you → prompt → what
But the company says that all stays secure for each user.
asserted
all → say → user
Risks of mishaps rise with AI agents’ level of access
asserted
Risks → rise → access
In Robb’s case, he learned the disclosure of his address came down to “always allow” permissions he granted when he first let Muse on his Facebook Marketplace profile, where he had shared his pickup address.
asserted
he → learn → address
But he warned others could similarly misunderstand the extent of that access — and said he initially thought the AI agent would check with him before sharing that information or accepting offers, regardless.
uncertain
agent → warn → offers
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
