China's Manus AI Launches as a Fully Autonomous Agent, Drawing Mixed Reactions

Manus, developed by startup Monica, claims groundbreaking capabilities but faces technical challenges and skepticism over its true potential.

Manus AI, developed by Chinese startup Monica, is marketed as the world's first fully autonomous AI agent capable of independently initiating and completing complex tasks without human input.
The platform combines existing AI models, such as Anthropic's Claude and Alibaba's Qwen, to perform tasks like research report generation, real estate analysis, and resume evaluation.
While Manus has outperformed competitors like OpenAI's DeepResearch on certain benchmarks, early users report technical issues, including crashes, factual errors, and incomplete task execution.
The AI's exclusivity and limited access have fueled hype, with Chinese media and social influencers amplifying its perceived capabilities, though some claims have been debunked by the developers themselves.
Manus' launch highlights China's growing competitiveness in AI development, raising questions about the global implications of autonomous AI, including ethical concerns and potential job displacement.