{"id":21935,"date":"2025-03-11T14:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T12:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/breakthrough-or-marketing-ploy-ai-agent-manus-sparks-frenzy\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T14:04:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T12:04:29","slug":"breakthrough-or-marketing-ploy-ai-agent-manus-sparks-frenzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/breakthrough-or-marketing-ploy-ai-agent-manus-sparks-frenzy\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthrough or Marketing Ploy? AI Agent Manus Sparks Frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The new Chinese AI model Manus has garnered attention both domestically and internationally for its ability to effectively tackle a wide range of practical tasks. This was highlighted by journalists at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/tech-trends\/article\/3301864\/chinese-ai-agent-manus-transcends-chatbots-founder-start-butterfly-effect-says?module=top_story&#038;pgtype=section\">SCMP<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Manus is positioned as a &#8220;general-purpose AI agent,&#8221; capable of booking trips, analyzing stocks, comparing insurance policies, and performing a variety of other tasks. The development is backed by Tencent-supported company Butterfly Effect, the publication notes. <\/p>\n<p>The platform can operate without an <span data-descr=\"application programming interface\" class=\"old_tooltip\">API<\/span> or other complex settings. It understands requests, accesses the internet, analyzes information on the screen, and performs tasks autonomously. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K27diMbCsuw?si=cWd2SCV25-QNsYff\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Access to the product remains restricted, available only by invitation. Some users reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/309413\/chinas-manus-ai-challenges-openais-200-agent-if-you-can-get-an-invite\">pay<\/a> significant sums for the opportunity to use the tool.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike OpenAI, which <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/openai-unveils-200-a-month-pro-version-of-o1-amid-concerns-over-deceptive-behaviour\">charges<\/a> $200 for access to advanced AI features, Manus is free. A small monthly fee is planned after the full release.<\/p>\n<p>Due to server overloads, a secondary market for invitation codes to access the platform has emerged on the Chinese trading platform Xianyu. The cost of a beta account peaked at 10 million yuan ($1.3 million).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXcyERYL8VMTvG9nZkhrDp5VNk3pyZrcqwTLG3tIJQwg74FB4p6OKWeA0ZzYxF51r11PJXO2L89CgPIVclRIgzfQqkWCN0eZ2OsMvwNN7D_9HluUM8Q9zyh9kjmPtYS3VnW-U3uevA?key=txb1mITmcBDK1uU3RzvKjhOO\" alt=\"Breakthrough or Marketing Ploy? AI Agent Manus Sparks Frenzy\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data: Decrypt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is no way to reliably confirm this information. It is likely that a deal of such a large sum was made to create <span data-descr=\"fear of missing out\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FOMO<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the developers, the model achieved advanced results in the GAIA benchmark, reflecting the capabilities of neural networks to handle agent functions. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXceU8m3Y_HK9o9Y0nnQwoXXP1oeXfckOyecQ5DITDX6fJ9NV2xDM3gl13L9KC8U3s0uTjDUUgaADJkTO5IFKqGWfMDL-sVcPsgnQCrKOUVCLeAKJ5UexW2IFEn5wGEdCQ-OeWoVMA?key=txb1mITmcBDK1uU3RzvKjhOO\" alt=\"Breakthrough or Marketing Ploy? AI Agent Manus Sparks Frenzy\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Comparison of Manus with other neural networks. Data: Decrypt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Users have left positive reviews about Manus.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXcUmUOwHvu7qeNrooPGNw4wBurVn2Zg4hyUHzDlAGelWrZeeTvIQlMB-q5lrF5h4GfTBxeN0JT8iOSM9UI_rCLo_3PUnurUg9v0AO_RpLysqemO8gl2Z6t-oY3JvyKe8n_-GSzZ?key=txb1mITmcBDK1uU3RzvKjhOO\" alt=\"Breakthrough or Marketing Ploy? AI Agent Manus Sparks Frenzy\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/awilkinson\/status\/1898413116972786132\">X<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just madness. It feels like I&#8217;ve just been transported six months into the future. I sent it a zip file with 20 candidates for the CEO position. It thoroughly examined each of them, sequentially browsing web pages and taking notes, then ranked them based on the requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Now it&#8217;s creating a web application for me to replace software we pay $6,000 a year for,&#8221; noted Tiny co-founder Andrew Wilkinson.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Positive remarks were also made by AI researcher <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/victormustar\/status\/1898505307896131708\">Victor Mustar<\/a> and Menlo Venture investor <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/deedydas\/status\/1898444603071795378\">Deedy Das<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Criticism was not absent. A user on X with the nickname johns <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gpt45dog\/status\/1898619482635112787\">claimed<\/a> that Manus&#8217;s popularity is due not to innovations but to a large-scale advertising campaign conducted in China.<\/p>\n<p>Some <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ai_for_success\/status\/1898790353291121082\">noted<\/a> the low performance of the neural network and expressed doubts regarding the use of third-party solutions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We use Claude and various <span data-descr=\"the process of fine-tuning large language models from the Qwen family, developed by Alibaba Cloud, for specific tasks\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Qwen-finetunes<\/span>,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jianxliao\/status\/1898861051183349870\">admitted<\/a> Jichao Yi from Monica AI.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In January, Chinese startup DeepSeek <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/deepseek-the-new-ai-front-runner-and-culprit-behind-cryptos-sell-off\">sparked a frenzy<\/a> by releasing the reasoning-oriented open-source model DeepSeek-R1.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/openai-to-offer-ai-agents-at-20000-monthly-reports-suggest\">plans to charge<\/a> up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI agents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new Chinese AI model Manus has garnered attention both domestically and internationally for its ability to effectively tackle a wide range of practical tasks. This was highlighted by journalists at SCMP. Manus is positioned as a &#8220;general-purpose AI agent,&#8221; capable of booking trips, analyzing stocks, comparing insurance policies, and performing a variety of other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,133],"class_list":["post-21935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-china"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"26","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}