But after trying out a few AI mainstays: asking “Mica” (you can name your Muse assistant) to make a restaurant reservation (yawn), sort your Gmail, or check my morning commute (she referred me to the official New York City Subway website, thanks?), I decided to go shopping. That’s when things got interesting.
Welcome to another edition of Prompt Mode, your weekly AI newsletter.
I’m your host, Ben Patterson. Every week in Quick modeI will offer analysis of AI trends that matter to everyday users like you and me. Stay tuned for practical AI tips, hands-on experiences with the latest AI tools, and, you guessed it, pointers to help you get the most out of your AI assistants.
Thanks for reading, and if you like what you see, just register here.
Available on iOS, Android, Mac, and on the web (I used the iOS app), Muse isn’t the first AI agent to shop on your behalf (Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping can do that, of course), but it’s among the first to support Link by Stripe, a one-click digital wallet backed by thousands of online merchants. For those retailers that don’t accept Stripe, Link by Stripe can create a single-use virtual card that is “earmarked” for a specific purchase, meaning Muse can use your Stripe wallet virtually anywhere.
While Muse can use Link for Stripe to purchase items on your behalf, you cannot see the details of the payment methods (including credit card and bank account numbers) you entered into your Stripe account. You are also not supposed to make any purchase without your final and explicit approval.
Now, assuming you trust your credit cards to Muse (a great question), what makes it better than simply shopping on Amazon, which, by the way, has blocked Muse from accessing their website? I learned the answer when I started using Muse to search for theater tickets.
It turns out that Muse is a tireless online shopper, running on his own cloud-based virtual machine and willing to scour multiple websites for deals. As a Manhattanite who loves the theater but can’t afford Broadway tickets every night, I came up with the idea of using Muse to get deals on the city’s most popular tickets.
I started with opera, specifically Verdi’s. macbeth at the Met Opera, which just received an excellent review from the New York Times (i.e. it’s time to act fast).
