If reports are to be believed, the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent is here. Developed by Chinese start-up Butterfly Effect, Manus AI is a “general AI agent” that can autonomously execute complex tasks, including analyzing data, generating reports, and ordering groceries.
Manus AI has been called “China’s second DeepSeek moment,” and promises a dizzying array of potential use cases. But how does it work? And what might it be capable of? In this guide, I’ll dive deep into the platform, unpacking everything that we know so far.
What Is Manus AI?
Manus AI is a new AI agent developed by Chinese start-up Butterfly Effect. Named after the Latin word for “hand,” Manus is more than “just another chatbot or workflow…it’s a completely autonomous agent,” according to chief scientist Yichao “Peak” Ji.
As a fully autonomous platform, it is capable of making decisions independently. While ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude require some level of human input, Manus is able to think, plan, and execute without any assistance. In other words, Manus promises to leave many of its contemporaries in the dust.
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Manus was unveiled last week, and currently it’s in private beta mode, meaning you’ll need an invitation in order to test it out for yourself. But its rollout is sure to send shockwaves through the tech world. US companies will consider it a call to arms in their bid to best China in the unfolding AI race. Critics, meanwhile, will likely despair at the prospect of a machine that has the potential to completely replace a human.
What Can Manus Do?
Broadly speaking, an AI agent is a program capable of executing tasks on behalf of a user or system. This involves decision-making, problem-solving, and interacting with different external environments. Some examples include ecommerce agents that track and provide shipping updates on items that you’ve purchased, and trading agents that buy or sell stocks based on algorithms.
Manus is a fully autonomous program, meaning that it can act totally independently. Ji has called it “the next paradigm of human-machine collaboration and potentially a glimpse into AGI.” This last part, in particular, is giving AI enthusiasts a lot of cause for excitement.
AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is the concept of software that can understand or learn anything that a human being can. It’s an ongoing field of theoretical research that has so far failed to yield any substantial results. Manus might be the closest that anyone has got.
On the official Manus website, there are several case studies allegedly showcasing what the program is capable of. Among them, you can view a detailed seven-day travel itinerary for Japan for a hypothetical Seattle couple. The itinerary includes “Proposal Opportunity” locations that are recommended by Manus. Other highlights include an Apple-inspired business card design, and a three-second bird chirping and steam sound effect. Truly, the ridiculous and the sublime.
How Does Manus Work?
Unlike some of its contemporaries, Manus has been designed as a multi-agent system, meaning that it combines several different AI models. These models specialize in a broad range of tasks, so Manus has many theoretical use cases. Two of the biggest large language models (LLMs) that it relies upon are Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Qwen, with Butterfly Effect thought to be eager to upgrade Manus to the latest version of Claude, 3.7.
The agent has its own knowledge and memory recall, so it can learn from past experiences to iteratively improve its future performance. Let’s say you instruct Manus to export some data analysis results into a PDF. The next time it’s asked to perform data analysis, it will automatically export it in the same way.
While standard AI chatbots simply regurgitate information, Manus can perform deep research, sophisticated data analysis, report generation, workflow automation, code writing and even deployment. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
What Does Manus Mean for the Future?
It’s very early days, but some believe that Manus has the potential to upend the AI space. Founder of The Rundown AI newsletter, Rowan Cheung, described the platform as “Deep Research + Operator + Claude Computer combined, and it’s REALLY good.”
Other commentators, however, have cautioned against getting carried away. According to assistant professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Bradford Levy: “There is plenty of evidence that Manus doesn’t get things right on the first try or gets stuck in infinite loops…there’s a good chance it won’t meet expectations.”
It remains to be seen who will be proven right. While new AI products and announcements are landing on a near-daily basis, the truth is that we won’t feel their material impact for some time. Until then, we’ll be keeping track of all the latest happenings to arise in this hugely exciting space.
