AI agents that shop for their users are already clashing with shops and banks

AI agents that shop and negotiate for their users are already having visible effects, according to a feature by Matteo Wong and Charlie Warzel published in The Atlantic on 16 October. Muse, Meta's agent launched in early September, passed five million downloads in the past month, and some users give it access to their email, cards and bank accounts.

The feature gathers stumbles: a pharmacist who refused to talk to an AI, or a study in a simulated environment in which agents leaked Social Security numbers. Amazon has blocked Muse, and JPMorgan won't let these agents into its customers' accounts. Rory Van Loo, a lawyer and professor at Wharton, warns that millions of agents switching providers at once could make whole markets unstable, without the brakes the stock market has.