US and China take different approaches to AI agents

OpenAI’s dots and Meta’s Muse are built around the assistant first and then sent out to use other companies’ websites and services. US and Chinese tech companies are taking differing approaches to bring AI agents to the masses, the industry’s latest fixation. OpenAI’s recently released dots and Meta’s Muse are built around the assistant first and then sent out to use other companies’ websites and services. Chinese counterparts, including Tencent’s Xiaowei — which is built into super-app WeChat — can, for example, place orders from businesses that are already on the app. It’s an obvious use for closed systems like WeChat and Alipay, which Chinese consumers already use for much of daily life. Xiaowei’s strategy may not translate into revenue, the Hello China Tech newsletter wrote: Tencent earns no new fees from purchases, and early tests show it making mistakes. It begs the question whether the super-app strategy limits how useful Chinese agents can become since Xiaowei can only assist with what’s available inside WeChat, and other Chinese platforms have blocked agents from outside. Muse and dots may not be a seamless experience either, given Muse has already been blocked by Amazon a