Nat Friedman, product lead at Meta Superintelligence Labs, confirmed that the Muse AI assistant was heavily inspired by the OpenClaw project. The discussion emerged on X after users identified identical file naming conventions and matching SOUL.md structures between the two platforms.
The SOUL.md file serves as a core instruction set defining an AI agent's personality, communication style, values, and behavioral boundaries. Following his initial experience with OpenClaw in January, Friedman purchased hundreds of Mac mini units for his team at Meta to facilitate development.
Friedman stated that while Muse was built from scratch, the team drew significant inspiration from OpenClaw and other personal AI agent solutions. He praised OpenClaw co-founder Peter Steinberger for his innovative infrastructure, noting that the project has influenced many developers across the industry.
The initiative aligns with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's July vision of developing personal superintelligence designed to benefit individual users. The goal for Muse is to adapt the personal agent concept into a format suitable for broader Meta ecosystem integration.
