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Meta Launches AI Personal Agent With Subscriptions Starting At $20

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 9, 2026

Meta has launched a new AI personal agent app and is already asking some users to pay for it, as the company seeks to turn its AI investment into a new business line.

Developed under the internal code name Hatch, the app is powered by Meta’s Muse Spark family of foundation models. It can handle everyday tasks including booking appointments, completing online forms and monitoring home security camera feeds.

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Meta Targets A Simple User Experience

Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang said Muse is designed to keep the user experience simple while handling complex tasks in the background.

“Behind the scenes, Muse might be doing very advanced coding workflows, or building sophisticated integrations, or doing quite a lot of heavy lifting while keeping that very sort of simple for the user,” Wang told CNBC.

Muse will offer a free tier and monthly plans costing $20 and $100, depending on usage. The pricing reflects Meta’s effort to build recurring AI revenue alongside advertising.

Zuckerberg Bets On Personal AI Agents

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has identified personal AI agents as a potential next stage of artificial intelligence and a source of future products and revenue. That strategy is driving continued spending on data centers and AI infrastructure as Meta bets that assistants capable of managing emails, finding deals and handling routine tasks will become mainstream.

Launch Comes Amid Legal And Industry Scrutiny

Muse arrives as Meta faces continued legal scrutiny. The company recently agreed to pay nearly $17 billion in a settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general over allegations involving harm on Facebook and Instagram, while additional lawsuits from personal injury plaintiffs and school districts remain pending.

Across the AI industry, regulators and security experts are also examining cybersecurity risks associated with autonomous agents and their underlying models. Data center expansion and questions over AI profitability are adding further pressure on major technology companies.

Meta Seeks A Payoff From AI Spending

Wall Street is pressing Meta to show that its AI investments can produce durable returns as the company remains heavily dependent on advertising while expanding into subscriptions and commerce.

Muse joins Meta’s broader AI portfolio, including the Muse Code developer agent and subscription offerings tested in recent months. Together, they point to a strategy of building a commercial AI services business rather than treating AI products as standalone experiments.

Security, Privacy And Commerce

Meta says Muse operates in an isolated environment and does not access users’ actual passwords or payment details. The agent asks for approval before sensitive actions, while third-party researchers can test the product through a bug-bounty program.

Users can opt out of having their Muse interactions used to train Meta’s models. For those who remain opted in, Meta says it will remove critical personally identifying information before using the data, according to David Singleton, Meta’s vice president of engineering.

Commerce could provide another revenue source. Wang said Meta is considering taking a share of shopping transactions completed through the agent, although no final business model has been decided.

Muse Expands Across Meta’s Ecosystem

US consumers will be able to access Muse on iOS, Android and a standalone website, with plans to bring it to Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

The service will compete with personal-agent products from OpenAI, Google and newer startups. Wang acknowledged that the market remains at an early stage, saying, “It’s pretty early in this new era of personal agents.”

The Future Forbes Realty Global Properties

Paramount Closes $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Deal, Creating Skydance Entertainment Giant

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 6, 2026

Paramount has completed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing together two of the most powerful names in media under a new combined company, Skydance. The deal, announced Tuesday, creates one of the largest entertainment mergers ever completed and reshapes the competitive landscape across streaming, film, television and cable.

A New Power Center In Global Entertainment

The combined company unites Paramount+ and HBO Max, alongside a broad portfolio of networks that includes CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central and Food Network. It also gives Skydance control over some of the industry’s most valuable franchises, including The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the DC Universe and Yellowstone.

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For the industry, the scale of the transaction is as significant as the assets themselves. In an era defined by streaming competition and rising content costs, ownership of established intellectual property has become a strategic advantage akin to controlling a premium distribution network in a previous media cycle.

Ellison Expands His Influence

The merger places one of the world’s largest entertainment studios under the control of David Ellison, who only last year completed the combination of Skydance Media and Paramount. With this latest transaction, Ellison is accelerating his rise as one of Hollywood’s most influential executives.

The Ellison family remains Skydance’s largest shareholder, backed by the financial power of Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder and David Ellison’s father. That support gives the company considerable flexibility as it integrates two sprawling media businesses and seeks to compete more aggressively across platforms.

Legal Hurdles Cleared Before Closing

The deal’s completion follows settlements with a coalition of U.S. states and a Hollywood writers’ union, removing the principal legal obstacles that had threatened to delay or derail the merger.

Paramount first announced in February that it would pursue Warner Bros. Discovery after a bidding contest with Netflix, which had earlier struck its own agreement to acquire Warner Bros.’ film and television studios and streaming operations, excluding the cable networks. Paramount strengthened its offer by promising shareholders additional cash if the deal failed to close by a set deadline and by agreeing to cover the breakup fee owed to Netflix.

What Skydance Says Comes Next

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Ellison said in a statement. “From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere. Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences and rewards shareholders. We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”

Skydance said the combined company will generate nearly $70 billion in annual revenue. The company’s Class B shares are set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbol SKYD.