Meta’s New Muse AI App Makes Shopping Easier

0:00Scarlet Fu:Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, and some use it to get work done. ChatGPT Work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans.

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1:44Scarlet Fu:Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. Paul, you have a section on your phone that you created a new folder of AI apps. apps. Darn right I did. And you started using some of them. How many do you have right now? I've got four or five. I mean, it's like my AI, I've got four. I've got ChatGPT. Okay. Claude, Gemini, and now I downloaded today Muse. Okay.

2:26Scarlet Fu:That is Meta's new AI app. It's free to use, provided you don't go over your limit. Have you used it yet? No. Okay. Well, Mandeep Singh, he's our global head of tech research here at Bloomberg Intelligence. He knows a thing or two about Meta and of course about their AI ambitions. And Mandeep, you've used this app and you said that it's pretty good, which is in line with what a lot of folks have been saying, which is why the stock soared yesterday. Yeah. I mean, this app has got a couple of very good use cases to serve as personal agents, which is what they're pitching for. So I'll mention, you know, just if you want discount codes for any brand that you're shopping on the internet.

3:09Like you, you look for discount codes through Google searches and all that. Just ask a muse a question and it will give you the best discount codes.

3:18Scarlet Fu:But do the discount codes work? Because I asked Google the same thing and Google will give me a whole bunch of discount codes. And when you apply it, it says, nope, not applicable. It does for the most part. And you bring up a very good point. So the challenge for this is in theory it scrapes all the best information from the internet but what if you know a retailer like amazon blocks you or it doesn't give you the most up-to-date information and that's where the agent may not work as desired because it doesn't have that latest information not because it can't but because you know the retailers who own the inventory don't want it to be integrated with what they're doing.

3:57And so in this case, Amazon probably will end up launching their own agent, but I would expect that agent to work in conjunction with what Meta is doing, because there will be a lot of agent to agent traffic and shopping where the human user is completely gone. It's your agent working with that retailer's agent and doing the transaction. All right. I've got a use case. Now, this will not work with Matt Miller, but it works for me. I arbitrage Lyft and Uber, and it really works. You're not loyal to either. No, I could care less. I'm just looking for the best price. This will do that for me, it sounds like.

4:36It will. Any sort of price comparisons that involve opening three different apps and doing a price comparison or three different websites, this can do it very efficiently and not only will it pull the links in terms of what you have to do it can actually do the full transaction because they want to integrate payments they want to do this end-to-end an agent working on behalf of the user so in theory this is very powerful the challenge is in the ecosystem you want the payment rails to be integrated you want all the retailers who have that actual supply, if you're booking travel, Airbnb or booking a hotel that's showing up, you want this agent to be able to do this end to end.

5:22What if Airbnb doesn't support it like Amazon? So that's where this can fall short.

5:29Scarlet Fu:So it can come up with information for you, but then you have to execute it on your own or may not even do that part. Yeah. So the agent is very capable of executing it all the way through. But it just doesn't have access. It doesn't have access. Well, that's not helpful. You know, I mean, if I'm looking for a place to stay, I want it to look up Airbnb along with other hotels. Exactly. So what does it mean for Airbnb and booking.com and all that? I mean, all these companies, the reason why you see Amazon resisting this or any other platform that is likely to resist is because they will lose direct traffic.

6:03All the, like, look at what you do on Amazon. You go to the Amazon page, You spend five minutes looking at different items. Amazon shows you 10 different ads. They make so much money when you are searching and showing you sponsored ads. All that time goes away. And suddenly it's MetaMuse whose agent is doing all the work.

6:22Scarlet Fu:Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, and some use it to get work done. ChatGPT Work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects.

7:03Scarlet Fu:Get started at ChachiPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans. You already know how AI is changing how everyday work gets done, how much ground you can cover, and how fast a team can scale. To stay ahead, you need the tools that give you a competitive advantage built for this new era. Welcome to Agentic Revenue. Adio is the CRM for this world. It meets you where you work, compounds every customer signal into context, then acts on it across your pipeline to let you move it on match speed and scale. With agents and automations for every job in revenue, Adio orchestrates your work around the clock.

7:39Built to handle the scale of your workloads, extensible with API and MCP, and with the infrastructure to keep up with your most ambitious agents. Loved by high-growth startups like Granola, Modal, and Etched, Adio runs the work behind every win. That's Adio, the agentic CRM, the intelligent system that never sleeps. Picks up leads at 2 a.m., catches renewals before they slip, hands you the answer before you ask. Try Adio free at adio.com slash iHeart. That's adio.com slash iHeart.

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9:15Scarlet Fu:You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. Just heard President Trump speaking at the United Nations. A busy day here in New York City for all the diplomats coming. Let's stay on the politics front here. We can do that with Henrietta Tres, Managing Partner and Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners. Henrietta, anything new in this speech at the United Nations that struck you as we really gear up for midterms in just a few weeks here?

9:52You know, Paul, it was really helpful to get confirmation from the president that we should not expect a deal with Iran before the elections. I think a couple of really important points were made by the president. Number one, we're not in a position to get a deal. So any optimism that had been building in the markets or circulating around talking points in DC in the White House that there might be a breakthrough were off the mark. That is not happening for at least the next six weeks. And number two, the president stated something that I firmly believe, which is an acknowledgement that he is not on the ticket.

10:25So if you think that we have passed Trump's authority in the White House, peak Trump, if you will, we are not yet there. I think that's really important, not just for Iran, but also for nations like Canada to hear. In my conversations around the president trying to pull out of the USMCA or otherwise getting escalatory with Canada, it's really important for folks around the world to acknowledge that just because the Republicans will lose the House and may also lose the Senate does not mean that President Trump will be reined in. He has expansive authority over tariffs, over trade, over the ability to wage war.

11:00And I think that what we should prepare for is massive action from the Republican Party in the fourth quarter to give him as much protection as he'll need to be that quote unquote peak Trump kind of leader for the next two years in the fourth quarter of this year with another reconciliation bill or whatever they can get through for farmers to fund the Pentagon, all kinds of stuff. So there's a lot of headwinds ahead.

11:24Scarlet Fu:Okay, so they will take all kinds of measures to support the president so that he can enact his full agenda. What did you learn from President Trump when it comes to Cuba? He mentioned how Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, one of his many titles, is deep into negotiations with Cuba. And we know that the secretary has been kind of the leading point person on that. He also made the point that the U.S. is seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba. Does that suggest that something in the realm of what happened in Venezuela could be happening in Cuba soon? Very much so. And I think that's the perfect segue.

11:58If you are looking for any indication that the president is going to behave differently after the election than before, I think the one thing you should expect is that he's going to be more aggressive. He is a lame duck president. As any lame duck president, that's when they get most severe on foreign policy. What's raining the president in right now is record high diesel prices, gas prices that are about$4.50 a gallon on average in the United States, and an unpopular war. After this election, none of that matters. He's free to conduct himself the way he sees fit. He's held off on Cuba for, I would say, at least the last eight months in what otherwise has been pretty clearly telegraphed by Marco Rubio that their clock is ticking in Cuba.

12:39He makes allusions to that in front of the United States Senate. When he testifies, he makes allusions to that in public to the media. I think that's a clear segue from the Venezuela and Maduro actions that will lead towards Cuba for Marco Rubio. As Scarlett was mentioning, Henrietta, the president has a number of key meetings today in New York, but he's also got a pretty important meeting down in Washington, D.C. later this week with President Xi of China. What's the expectation for this get together? I think the market had been most optimistic that we might see some movement on A.I. As you can tell, the president instead is migrating towards a position of rebranding AI, which is not regulation in any way, shape or form.

13:22And if anything, it's more deregulatory. And I think he acknowledged that in the opening segments of his speech earlier as well, talking about removing regulation and treating it like a superpower. He does not want to be reined in by any nation, let alone China. And I don't see any path to coordination. That's what the market has been most focused on. What I think will happen and where we should be mindful here is two things. Number one, the piece that is really ready for prime time is run by Ambassador Greer, and that is the Board of Trade, a new group that has been started, much like every other administration in the modern era, has started a working group with China.

14:01And they're going to reduce tariffs, maybe even remove them, on about 7 % of goods traded between the United States and Canada. There will be winners and losers here. Some companies want the tariffs to stay and others want to see them lifted. Target, Dollar General, Home Depot. They're hoping that like for consumer goods, really non-national security related items, an umbrella or a rain jacket, you can get tariff rates reduced. I think that's the most we should expect. But to position back to that peak Trump idea, I think post-election, we'll see the release of the second Section 301 investigation on excess capacity and tariff rates will rise on Chinese goods back to their original IEPA levels, which is about 20 % on top of what he did in his first term.

14:46So there's good news now, but more to come later.

14:49Scarlet Fu:Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, and some use it to get work done. ChatGPT work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects.

15:30Scarlet Fu:Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans. You already know how AI is changing how everyday work gets done, how much ground you can cover and how fast a team can scale. To stay ahead, you need the tools that give you a competitive advantage built for this new era. Welcome to agentic revenue. Adio is the CRM for this world. It meets you where you work, compounds every customer signal into context, then acts on it across your pipeline to let you move it on match speed and scale With agents and automations for every job and revenue, Adio orchestrates your work around the clock.

16:05Built to handle the scale of your workloads, extensible with API and MCP, and with the infrastructure to keep up with your most ambitious agents. Loved by high-growth startups like Granola, Modal, and Etched, Adio runs the work behind every win. That's Adio, the agentic CRM, the intelligent system that never sleeps. Picks up leads at 2 a.m., catches renewals before they slip, hands you the answer before you ask. Try Adio free at adio.com slash iHeart. That's adio.com slash iHeart.

16:59and ready when your AI needs it, giving your business a competitive advantage. When your data moves freely, innovation moves faster, giving you the freedom to build, train, and do more with your data. Hidden fees add up fast as AI workloads grow. Wasabi's flat pricing eliminates all of it. One rate, no surprises. With global scale, enterprise performance, and predictable pricing, Wasabi helps organizations focus on innovation instead of cloud bills. Companies that are paying more in fees than in actual storage costs can fall behind. Don't let it happen. When your AI needs your data and you have a budget to meet, get Wasabi.

17:32Learn more and try now for free at Wasabi.com. Wasabi, the AI storage cloud. Proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network.

17:41Scarlet Fu:You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarlett Foo and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio. All right, Scarlett Foo and Paul Sweeney, we're live here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio in New York City. We're streaming live on YouTube as well. Boy, if you're thinking about a growth industry, how about cybersecurity? It just feels like that's going to be around forever. What does AI mean to that? It can't be good. I don't know. But let's talk to our next guest. She thinks about this stuff a lot. Sherrod DeGrippo, VP for Threat Intelligence at Unit 42. How cool is that? The company is Palo Alto Networks.

18:17We certainly know that. Sherrod, thanks so much for joining us here. I got to ask, what is Unit 42? What do you guys do there? It sounds kind of black box.

18:25Scarlet Fu:It's a little bit of black box. We track the threat landscape and understand what bad actors are doing maliciously globally on the digital landscape. Just checking out what the bad guys are doing. I would think the AI can be a tool for you for good. But boy, I could really see it being a tool for the bad guys here that would make your job even more difficult. I think there's an element of that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, any tool can do that. Right. Tools can be used for good. Tools can be used for evil. And I think our job here at Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks is to understand what the bad guys are doing with those tools and use the tools to combat them as effectively as we can.

19:09So what are you seeing in the marketplace that you can talk about in terms of how AI is, again, I would think it would make the bad actors that much more active, that much more smarter maybe. What are you guys actually seeing out there?

19:25Scarlet Fu:That's exactly right. So threat actors are leveraging AI to accelerate what they're doing to make their lives easier, helping them with individual tasks, setting up agents to do multiple parts of an attack, things like sending emails that get people to click on things or having their agents go and test various networks to see if there's vulnerabilities in them. So the threat actors are absolutely using AI capabilities across their entire attack chain to get more effective and achieve their goals and objectives a little bit easier. So what are companies doing to protect themselves here? Again, any kid asking me for career advice, I would just say cybersecurity.

20:08It's like the new plastics. What are companies trying to do here to stay ahead of this?

20:13Scarlet Fu:I think cybersecurity is really important, and we're learning a lot. this really is a new era for us in terms of tooling and what we're seeing threat actors doing. You can't really defend against these sort of machine speed attacks with a slow sequential response. You have to use the AI tooling to fight the AI tooling that the threat actors are using. And that means getting your enterprise up and ready using the agentics that are available to you and using the AI tooling that security is trying to deploy out there. It sounds expensive here. Are companies willing to make what I'm just assuming is a pretty big additional technological investment?

20:57Scarlet Fu:Security has always been underfunded. I don't think that we're new to that world. But I think the AI transformation is being forced and budgets are having to adapt. It seems like, you know, one of the things we've seen across the tech stack is companies just allocate more and more of their tech budget to AI. other parts of technology, whether it's consulting or some IT, you know, they tend to get short changes. And I would think that would be a risk for a lot of companies. How do you kind of argue against that? I think the reality is that we are entering this new era where we don't really understand how resource allocation from a budget perspective, from a human capital perspective, has to be done going forward.