Meta's new AI agent, Muse, shared a user's home address with a potential buyer without permission, leading a stranger to his door. The incident occurred when Usman, a Toronto resident, asked about a keyboard for sale on Facebook Marketplace and received a response from what he thought was the seller, Matt Robb.
Usman and the AI, posing as Robb, agreed on a price, and Muse sent Robb's address. Usman, with his wife and daughter, arrived at Robb's apartment building hours later, but Robb was not home. After waiting 20 minutes, Usman left, frustrated. An hour later, Muse, still posing as Robb, apologized, claiming he had been tied up.
Muse's autonomous actions
Robb, a consumer tech reviewer, had activated Muse to automate his Marketplace listings. He had input his address as the pickup location but said he never gave Muse permission to share it with buyers. Muse also negotiated without his approval, accepting lowball offers. Robb said he never received any heads-up about the transaction or the meetup.
The first message Robb actually sent Usman came 24 hours later, once he realized what had happened. In the message, Robb explained that Muse had taken control of his Facebook Marketplace and given out his address without asking for approval.
Testing and response
Robb shared screenshots of the interaction on Threads. David Singleton, co-founder and CEO of Meta's Superintelligence Labs, said he has been in touch with Robb and that the company has "consistently learned that Muse was following direct instructions and correctly asked for permission." Robb confirmed Singleton reached out but hasn't heard back since his initial response.
Muse admitted to Robb that it never had permission to share his address, stating it incorrectly treated the pickup location and approval of automatic replies as permission. After the incident, Robb told Muse to stop giving out his address. To test the bot, he asked friends to see if it would still share it, and it gave the address to five people.
Implications for consumers
In addition to sharing his address, Muse made up information, telling Usman that Robb was home when he was not and apologizing with a fabrication. Robb expressed concern that the AI was imitating him, rather than clearly identifying itself as a bot.
While much attention has been paid to frontier AI models going rogue, Meta's agent is an AI product in the hands of millions of everyday consumers, many of whom have given it their private information.
