Lenny Rachitsky · 5 min read · Gen AI Tools
🎙️ How I AI: Meta Muse Wonder + How Brooke Lacey is scaling video with AI
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Claire tests Meta's new Muse Wonder model across nearly 20 real-world tasks spanning agentic work, coding, writing, design, and video editing. The model excels at billing support, inbox triage, computer use, and email writing due to its 'active focus' mode, but consistently underperforms on frontend design and visual execution. While promising for agent workflows and knowledge-work orchestration, it is not ready to replace existing daily-driver tools.
Key Takeaways
- Muse Wonder is the strongest agentic model at its price tier, particularly excelling at long-running multi-step tasks like billing ticket resolution and inbox triage where it persistently tries different approaches until reaching the goal.
- The model's 'active focus' mode appears to be a genuine capability, with a clear correlation between time spent on complex tasks and output quality—more so than competing models.
- Muse Wonder's email writing closely matches a user's personal style (concise, conversational) without becoming formal or verbose, making it trustworthy for email delegation.
- Frontend design is a significant weakness—the model defaults to generic SaaS aesthetics (heavy serifs, blurple, rounded corners), ignores brand guidelines, and struggles with functional fidelity in interactive prototypes.
- Getting 80% of a prototype right is not the same as finishing it; Muse often produced convincing scaffolding but failed during interaction testing with broken buttons, incorrect themes, and obstructive overlays.
Excerpt
Meta’s new Muse Wonder model: good for AI agents, bad for design Listen now on YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts Brought to you by: DX —Engineering intelligence for the AI era Jira Product Discovery —Prioritize with insights, build with confidence Claire puts Meta’s new Muse Wonder model through nearly 20 real-world tasks covering agentic work, coding, writing, design, and video editing. She explains why its active focus mode made it especially strong at billing support, inbox triage, computer use, and email writing, while its prototypes and visual work consistently fell short. She also shares how Muse compares with Opus…