Mark Zuckerberg predicts Muse will become a "personal superintelligence" for billions.

Meta on Wednesday added a host of features to its viral Muse assistant and announced plans to install the agent in new iterations of its products, from a handheld AI device to high-tech glasses. Why it matters: Meta has poured billions of dollars into both its AI and VR efforts. It's counting on convergence as a key part of making that bet pay off. Driving the news: New Muse capabilities include live video chat, real-time voice conversations with custom voice options and an e-mail address for each person's agent. Meta announced new retail partners, including Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Wayfair and more, a growing list that makes Amazon's decision not to allow Muse stand out. Muse has prompted a stock selloff in recent days as investors fear an end to stickiness between brands and customers. Meta said Muse is coming soon to its AI glasses, though it declined to be more specific than "in the coming months." "I expect that Muse is going to grow into the personal superintelligence that billions of people around the world are going to use to accomplish their goals and improve their lives," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during his Meta Connect keynote on Wednesday. Zuckerberg said that Meta's business model behind Muse is a novel one. "We believe that Muse will make you money, and we're standing behind this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens, with the expectation that over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions," he said. Beyond Muse, Meta used the event to debut a range of new hardware along with new privacy options that could make the gear more palatable to the mainstream. Executives teased a handheld AI device but offered little detail. An array of new AI devices is set to hit the market soon, including from OpenAI. Meta's first audio-only glasses aim to appeal to those who want the benefit of open-air sound and an always available AI assistant without the cost and potential creepiness that comes from the camera-equipped version. The new models, which will be available later in October, start at $349. Meta is also updating its Meta Ray-Ban and Meta Glasses lines with modest improvements and new designs. The more radical shift is coming on the VR side of things. Meta previewed a much slimmer, $1,299 headset due out next spring. The Meta VR glasses shift the computing, battery and storage to a separate, wired puck, allowing for a 5K display in glasses that weigh just 100 grams. The headset relies entirely on voice, hand gestures and eye gaze to control a range of apps across games, entertainment and productivity. Meta says more than 75 hand-tracked games will be available at launch. Older titles created for Quest will also work, but people will then have to strap on controllers. The big picture: Meta has invested heavily in glasses and AI over the last several years. Now it sees those giant bets converging. "It just feels really clear that [AI]'s what's going to enable the next big platform," said Alex Himmel, Meta's vice president of wearables. "You're really starting to see that vision of VR and AR converging into glasses, starting to happen sooner." Between the lines: Meta is continuing a big shift on the privacy front. The company had already said it is working on a confidential virtual machine option for the Muse assistant. On Wednesday, Meta added that it is also readying "Private Processing" for AI glasses, a system designed to keep data protected even while it is being processed in the cloud, similar to Apple's Private Cloud Compute. Meta said the platform is working and hopes to bring it to glasses by the end of the year, though it has not committed to a launch date.

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