Since normal AI agent Manus was launched final week, it has unfold on-line like wildfire. And never simply in China both, the place it was developed by Wuhan-based startup Butterfly Impact. It’s made its means into the worldwide dialog, with influential voices in tech, together with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Hugging Face product lead Victor Mustar, praising its efficiency. Some have even dubbed it “the second DeepSeek,” drawing comparisons to the sooner AI mannequin that took the business without warning—each for its sudden capabilities and its origin.
Manus claims to be the world’s first normal AI agent—leveraging a number of AI fashions (equivalent to Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and fine-tuned variations of Alibaba’s open-source Qwen), and varied independently working brokers to behave autonomously on a variety of duties. (That is totally different from AI chatbots, together with DeepSeek, which can be based mostly on a single giant language mannequin household and are primarily designed for conversational interactions.)
Regardless of all of the hype, only a few individuals have had an opportunity to make use of it. At present, underneath 1% of the customers on the waitlist have acquired an invitation code. (It’s unclear how many individuals are on this waitlist, however for a way of how a lot curiosity there’s, Manus’s Discord channel has greater than 186,000 members.)
MIT Know-how Overview was in a position to acquire entry to Manus, and after I gave it a check drive, I discovered that utilizing it looks like collaborating with a very smart and environment friendly intern: Whereas it often lacks understanding of what it’s being requested to do, makes incorrect assumptions, or cuts corners to expedite duties, it explains its reasoning clearly, is remarkably adaptable, and may enhance considerably when supplied with detailed directions or suggestions. In the end, it’s promising however not excellent.
Identical to its guardian firm’s earlier product, an AI assistant known as Monica that was launched in 2023, Manus is meant for a worldwide viewers. English is about because the default language, and its design is clear and minimalist.
To get in, a person has to enter a legitimate invite code. Then the system directs customers to a touchdown web page that carefully resembles these of ChatGPT or DeepSeek, with historic classes displayed in a left-hand column and a chat enter field within the heart. The touchdown web page additionally options pattern duties curated by the corporate—starting from enterprise technique improvement to interactive studying to personalized audio meditation classes.
Like different reasoning-based agentic AI instruments, equivalent to ChatGPT DeepResearch, Manus is able to breaking duties down into steps and autonomously navigating the online to get the knowledge it wants to finish duties. What units it aside is the “Manus’s Pc” window, which permits customers not solely to watch what the agent is doing, but additionally intervene at any level.
To place it to the check, I tasked Manus with three assignments: (1) compile an inventory of notable reporters protecting China tech, (2) seek for two-bedroom property listings in New York Metropolis, and (3) nominate potential candidates for Innovators Underneath 35, an inventory created by MIT Know-how Overview yearly.
Right here’s the way it did:
Process 1: The primary checklist of reporters that Manus gave me contained solely 5 names, with 5 “honorable mentions” under them. I observed that it listed some journalists’ notable work whereas not others. I requested Manus why it did this. The rationale it supplied was hilariously easy: It acquired lazy. It was “partly attributable to time constraints as I attempted to expedite the analysis course of,” the agent advised me. After I insisted on consistency and thoroughness, Manus responded with a complete checklist of 30 journalists, noting their present outlet and itemizing notable work. (I used to be glad to see I made the minimize, together with a lot of my beloved friends.)
I used to be impressed that I used to be in a position to make top-level options for modifications, a lot as somebody would with a real-life intern or assistant, and that it responded in variety. And whereas it initially neglected some journalists’ employer standing modifications, after I requested it to revisit some outcomes, it shortly corrected them. One other good characteristic: the output was downloadable as a Phrase or Excel file, making it straightforward to edit or share with others.
Manus hit a snag, although, when accessing journalists’ information articles behind paywalls; it often encountered CAPTCHA blocks. Since I used to be in a position to observe alongside step-by-step, I may simply take over to finish these, although many media websites nonetheless blocked the software attributable to suspicious exercise. I see potential for main enhancements right here—and it might be helpful if a future model of Manus may proactively ask for assist when it encounters these kinds of restrictions.
Process 2: For the condo search, I gave Manus a posh set of standards, together with a funds, and parameters for a spacious kitchen, out of doors area, entry to downtown Manhattan, and a significant prepare station inside a seven-minute stroll. Manus initially interpreted imprecise necessities like “some sort of out of doors entry” too actually, utterly excluding properties with out a personal terrace or balcony entry. Nonetheless, after extra steering and clarification, it was in a position to compile a broader and extra useful checklist, giving suggestions in tiers and neat bullet factors.
The ultimate output felt straight from Wirecutter, containing subtitles like “finest general,” “finest worth,” and “luxurious possibility.” This activity (together with the backwards and forwards) took lower than half an hour—loads sooner than compiling the checklist of journalists (which took somewhat over an hour), probably as a result of property listings are extra brazenly obtainable and well-structured on-line.
Process 3: This was the most important in scope: I requested Manus to appoint 50 individuals for this 12 months’s Innovators Underneath 35 checklist. Producing this checklist is a gigantic endeavor and we usually get tons of of nominations yearly. So I used to be curious to see how properly Manus may do. It broke the duty into steps, together with reviewing previous lists to grasp choice standards, making a search technique for figuring out candidates, compiling names, and making certain a various choice of candidates from everywhere in the world.
Growing a search technique was essentially the most time-consuming half for Manus. Whereas it didn’t explicitly define its method, the Manus’s Pc window revealed the agent quickly scrolling by way of web sites of prestigious analysis universities, bulletins of tech awards, and information articles. Nonetheless, it once more encountered obstacles when attempting to entry educational papers and paywalled media content material.
After three hours of scouring the web—throughout which Manus (understandably) requested me a number of occasions whether or not I may slim the search—it was solely in a position to give me three candidates with full background profiles. After I pressed it once more to supply an entire checklist of fifty names, it will definitely generated one, however sure educational establishments and fields had been closely overrepresented, reflecting an incomplete analysis course of. After I identified the problem and requested it to search out 5 candidates from China, it managed to compile a stable five-name checklist, although the outcomes skewed towards Chinese language media darlings. In the end, I had to surrender after the system warned that Manus’s efficiency would possibly decline if I saved inputting an excessive amount of textual content.
My evaluation: Total, I discovered Manus to be a extremely intuitive software appropriate for customers with or with out coding backgrounds. On two of the three duties, it supplied higher outcomes than after I offered the identical duties to ChatGPT DeepResearch, although it took considerably longer to finish them. Manus appears finest suited to analytical duties that require in depth analysis on the open web, however have a restricted scope. In different phrases, it’s finest to stay to the types of issues a talented human intern may do throughout a day of labor.
Nonetheless, it’s not all easy crusing. Manus can endure from frequent crashes and system instability, and may wrestle when requested to course of giant chunks of textual content. The message “Because of the present excessive service load, duties can’t be created. Please strive once more in a couple of minutes” flashed on my display screen just a few occasions when beginning new requests, and infrequently Manus’s Pc froze on a sure web page for a protracted time period.
It has the next failure price than ChatGPT DeepResearch—an issue the crew is addressing, in accordance to Manus’s chief scientist Peak Ji. That mentioned, Chinese language media outlet 36Kr reviews that Manus’s per-task price is about $2, which is simply one-tenth of DeepResearch’s price. If the Manus crew strengthens its server infrastructure, I can see the software changing into a most well-liked selection for particular person customers, notably white-collar professionals, impartial builders, and small groups.
Lastly, I believe it’s actually invaluable that Manus’s working course of feels extra clear and collaborative. It actively asks questions alongside the way in which and retains key directions as “data” in its reminiscence for future use, permitting for an simply customizable agentic expertise. It’s additionally very nice that every session is replayable and shareable.
I anticipate I’ll preserve utilizing Manus for all kinds of duties, each in my private {and professional} lives. Whereas I’m undecided the comparisons to DeepSeek are fairly proper, it serves as additional proof that Chinese language AI corporations aren’t simply following within the footsteps of their Western counterparts. They aren’t simply innovating on base fashions, however actively shaping the adoption of autonomous AI brokers in their very own means.